Miscellaneous Leagues Galore!
by Etherboy
Summary: Had a bunch of weird genre League ideas that I wanted to compile in one episodic fanfic. Hope people can enjoy this trippy series that will involve everything from blaxploitation to Disney films. Once again I thank the awesome Draco Orwell of the Black Dossier series for all their inspirational work.
1. The Revolutionary League

**Washington's Finest (1776-1783)**

 **Inception** – Formed by then General George Washington early in the American Revolutionary War as a small elite group capable of handling various seemingly impossible tasks that his conventional military forces could not, the Revolutionary League was ironically enough inspired by the British League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

 **Members**

 **Daniel Boone** \- Famed frontiersmen, explorer, solider, and hunter who became a legendary folk hero after blazing the Wilderness Road and helping settle the Appalachians and Kentucky. Personally, picked by Washington to led the Revolutionary League.

 **Benjamin Martin** \- A leader of one of the most successful patriot militias fighting in the war and whose mastery of guerrilla tactics earned him the infamy of the British and the respect of Washington. Like Boone, Martin was a veteran of the French and Indian War but was haunted by the experience due to his participation in the savage Battle of Fort Wilderness.

 **Alfred Bulltop Stormalong** \- A likely descendent of Nordic giants, Stormalong was a huge man from Massachusetts who captained the leviathan clipper ship, the Courser. He became famous not only for his height but also for battling krakens and traveling across the Atlantic as an adventurer. His vessel would be the mobile headquarters of the Revolutionary League.

 **Ratonhnhaké: ton** \- The child of a white man and Kanien'kehá: ka Indigenous woman, Ratonhnhaké: ton who was trained as an assassin by an ancient and mysterious order of killers after his village was destroyed by those he believed to be the order's greatest and oldest enemies. He had an almost improbable amount of influence and connection to the events leading up to the Revolutionary War and end up allying with Washington and joining the Revolutionary League as a means of avenging his family and destroying his order's manipulative foes.

 **Molly Pitcher** \- Asked to join the Revolutionary League by Washington himself as a later addition to the Revolutionary League after her infamous participation in Battle of Valley Forge and the Battle of Monmouth. While originally planned to be a propaganda figure meant to demonstrate the resolve of America's women in the fight for independence, Pitcher quickly earned her place in the League after showing her talent for quick thinking and incredible bravery under fire.

 **Team Dynamics** – Mostly unified and cooperative. Martin and Boone both being veterans of the French and Indian War gave them both a shared history that they could reminisce over though Martin was somewhat less nostalgic about his early military career. Boone and Ratonhnhaké: ton had encountered each other before the war and had a mutual, if sometimes turbulent, respect for one other largely because of Boone's relatively respectful attitude to Indigenous peoples. Pitcher's later recruitment was at first seen as a liability by both Martin and Boone but the two would quickly change their minds after the young woman saved them both during her first assignment with the Revolutionary League. Stormalong was well loved by everyone because of his bombastic and jovial nature.

 **Missions**

\- As to be expected they fought in several battles during the American Revolutionary War, with Boone and Martin leading their militia groups into combat and Ratonhnhaké: ton assassinating senior British officers. Stormalong and Ratonhnhaké: ton would use their ships, the Courser and the Aquila, to assist the Continental Navy's relatively meager naval forces in several sea battles and raids as well. Pitcher not only fought alongside her fellow League members during these conflicts but also used her charisma to rouse exhausted American forces when necessary. (1776-1781)

\- Working alongside Major Benjamin Tallmadge, the League frequently assisted the infamous 'Culper Ring' in their espionage operations in Setauket and New York City. (1778-1783)

\- Tracked down, fought, and captured the shape-shifting African folk hero John the Conqueror several times after stolen Tory documents revealed that the mysterious sorcerer had formed a pact with the British in a ploy to liberate his people. While the Revolutionary League would catch him regularly, the wily trickster always managed to somehow get away and continue to plague wealthy patriot slave owners with his antics. Washington eventually stopped ordering his League to catch him after it became clear that they were secretly letting him escape every time. (1778)

\- During brief lulls in the war (usually during the winter months) Washington would send the Revolutionary League to various locations within and without the Thirteen Colonies to investigate and explore unusual sites and phenomenon. These places included, the Catskills Mountains of New York where people in the area had been disappearing mysteriously for years, sometimes decades, only to reappear and claim that they'd only been gone for a single night, the infamous Massachusetts townships of Arkham, Kingsport, and Dunwich, where worship of monstrous aquatic deities were said have been practiced in secret for centuries, and the witch-communes of Greendale and Eastwick, where the League successfully managed to convince the isolationist witches to fight for the patriot cause against their British counterparts. They were also tasked with cataloging, and if possible, capturing various cryptids such as the sea serpent 'Champ' of Lake Champlain in Virginia, Wampus Cats in the Appalachians, the wolflike Dwayyo in Maryland, the possibly dragon-related Snallygasters, the elusive Jackalope, and the even more elusive Sasquatch, which the Revolutionary League was reported to permanently driven out of the Thirteen Colonies to the largely unexplored West. (1776-1783)

\- On October 31, 1778, the Revolutionary League was tasked by Washington to go to Sleepy Hollow, New York, and investigate reports of horrific night raids on patriot militias and Continental soldiers apparently performed by a single man on horseback. While they did manage to find their quarry, the League barely survived the encounter, the horsemen being seemingly immortal and immune to all physical attacks the League could muster. Fortunately, after a long night of combat, the specter dissipated with the coming daylight of the dawn. The Revolutionary League remained in Sleepy Hollow for a week afterward in case the horsemen returned but would find no further attacks committed against the patriot soldiers and were eventually recalled by Washington. The horsemen would return sporadically to haunt the areas surrounding Sleepy Hollow for centuries afterward. (1778)

\- Nearing the end of the war, a desperate King George the 3rd ordered Gulliver's Fellowship, the second League of Extraordinary in the British Crown's service and the very inspiration for Washington's own League, to assassinate its patriot counterparts in the hope that Washington, and the Revolution as a whole, would be severely hampered by the loss of his most extraordinary agents. As luck would have though, Natty Bumppo, a legendary frontiersman himself, was an old friend of Daniel Boone and managed to secretly warn him of his comrade's plans to ambush the Revolutionary League at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Instead of avoiding the confrontation as Bumppo had hoped, Boone convinced his teammates to go to Plymouth as planned, believing that without the element of surprise, or Bumppo's full enthusiasm for the mission, that they would be able to capture Gulliver's Fellowship's easily. He was wrong. The battle between the two Leagues almost destroyed the town entirely and resulted in both groups being forced to retreat after the mysterious swordsmen known only as Orlando hamstringed Stormalong and sent the giant crashing into the main square of the small sea-side town. It is said that Boone's and Bumppo's friendship became permanently strained after this mission due to the latter's refusal to completely betray the British and join the Patriots. (1781)

 **Dissolution -** The Revolutionary League was officially decommissioned on September 3rd, 1783, with the end of the war and the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

 **Final Fates**

Boone became a representative in the state assembly of Virginia but was more remembered for continuing to act as a successful land surveyor and frontiersmen well into his old age.

Martin returned to South Carolina, and with the help of his former militia soldiers, rebuilt his plantation. He would also go to get re-married to his sister-in-law.

Stormalong's final fate is ambiguous given that depending on what records you check he either died from exhaustion after swimming across the entirety of the Atlantic or was killed by terminal indigestion after eating six whole sharks in quick secession. Another record states that Stormalong learned how to make his ship fly after being caught in a hurricane and is currently living amongst the sky giants of legend. Which is true is impossible to say.

Ratonhnhaké: ton continued to fight against his order's enemies and would eventually father a child. Beyond that nothing is known of him or his order of assassins.

Pitcher and her husband William Hayes happily went back to their home in Pennsylvania and had a son together. Unfortunately, William would die shortly after the war and Pitcher would remarry a violent man by the name of John McCauley who nearly improvised his wife and adopted son with his drinking and bad investments. He would mysteriously disappear in 1808 and leave Pitcher a happy widow until her death in 1832.


	2. The 1960s Horror League

**The Markway Group (1963-1968)**

 **Inception** – The Markway Group was created in 1963 by the US government as an unofficial investigative team that would be on hand to assist the FBI, CIA, and even the military, whenever unexplainable, and potentially dangerous, paranormal phenomenon was discovered. Designated as 'X-cases', these investigations were primarily supernatural in origin; mansion hauntings, satanic cults, vampires, etc. That being stated, the group was also known to investigate mundane serial killers and extraterrestrial life as well, though, given the existence of the clandestine Men in Black and many 50's 'Spaceman' heroes still being active at the time, they were rarely needed to handle the latter. While the team was originally supposed to simply consult governmental authorities during investigations (as all of the members of the group were civilians and thus seen as having no place in potentially violent missions) it became clear within less of than a few months of their inception that the group was more than capable of directly confronting whatever dangers they discovered in their cases, and that outside interfere was usually more of a liability then a boon.

 **Members**

 **Dr. John Markway** \- Famous supernaturalist specialized in hauntings but also interested in various other paranormal activity. While regarded as a quack for most of his academic career, the events of his Hill House investigation finally got him reclaim, though the tragic circumstances of his rise to notoriety haunted him. Given his newfound attention in the public eye, Dr. Markway was approached by the U.S. government to lead their new paranormal investigation group and to recruit extraordinary people for it, a position he initially was hesitant to accept given what happened at Hill House but nevertheless agreed to after prompting from his wife.

 **Theodora Bloom** \- A bohemian psychic capable of sensing otherworldly forces in 'thin places' like the infamous Hill House where she first meet Dr. Markway. Theodora, or Theo as she preferred to be called, was a lesbian with a long-time partner and was loosely involved with the 60's gay rights movement, and the wider counter-culture movement, but typically hid this information from others until she firmly trusted them. An outspoken and vibrant individual, Bloom tended to be the voice of reason in the group whenever Dr. Markway or Addams got carried away during their stranger investigations.

 **Gomez Addams** \- An eccentric billionaire with an equally eccentric family. While seemingly just a mortal man with no supernatural abilities, Addams possessed an encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural that many real sorcerers would envy. Incredibly charming and seemingly immune to fear, Addams was the most physical member of the group and would constantly be the first to tango with the group's enemies, sometimes quite literally dancing while fighting them.

 **Sabrina Spellman** \- Descended from a long line of witches and warlocks from the centuries-old township of Greendale, Spellman was a teenage witch with various powerful magical abilities. That said, given her young age, and her aunts decision to homeschool her instead of sending her to the American wizard academy of Ilvermorny in New York City, Spellman was rather inexperienced when it came to actually using her powers and as a result, would sometimes have them backfire on her. Regardless, Spellman was determined to show her worth and learn as much about the supernatural as possible, so much so that when Dr. Markway came to recruit one of her aunts for his group, she managed to convince him that she would be a better choice.

 **Dr. James Xavier** \- The group's most enigmatic figure, Dr. Xavier was once a renowned optometrist who had found a way to create experimental eye-drops that could increase the average range of human vision. Unfortunately, his decision to use himself a trial run would turn out to be a tragic one as his eyes began to see things beyond human comprehension. The experience left him a broken man and while he did accept Dr. Markway's offer to join the group and use his strange ocular abilities for good, he never warmed to his fellow investigators and was very much a loner.

 **Team Dynamics** – Good. Dr. Markway recruited them all personally, having been given total autonomy in assembling the team on account of the government not wanting to be too responsible for the group in case their experiment in recruiting civilians failed spectacularly. Thus, many of those recruited were friends or respected colleagues of Markway who shared his interest in investigating the paranormal. Addams and Dr. Markway, in particular, had been long-time friends before the group was formed, with Addams acting as Dr. Markway's biggest patron for his paranormal experiments. As already mentioned, Dr. Markway knew Bloom, from his investigation of the Hill House haunting. While the events of that case had ultimately ended in tragedy, the two still kept in contact with each for emotional support, forming a genuine friendship after several months, with Markway even meeting Bloom's partner. Spellman was initially seen as particularly vulnerable by many of her teammates (Addams being the sole exception) and was kept out of more intense confrontations the group encountered during their earliest cases, regardless of the fact that her abilities made her the most powerful member. This would change after Spellman, used the full scope of her magical abilities to save the group from a deranged boy-god. Afterwards, her relationship with the group became much more positive, especially with Bloom who taught her meditative techniques to hone her powers. Dr. Xavier was a distant loner, who while always willing to follow Dr. Markway's orders and assist his fellow investigators, never really warmed to them and would at times seem to be entirely engrossed in his own head. Given the nature of his abilities, this may have been literally true.

 **Cases**

\- The group's first case took them to Ivy Town, New York, where Triffids, a plant-based alien form that had ravaged the world only a few years ago, suddenly re-emerged there in the thousands, leaving most of the town's residents blind or dead. With a small military escort, the group infiltrated Ivy Town and tried to find the source of the infection before the military was forced to destroy the town entirely to stop the infestation from spreading further. With Dr. Xavier's abilities the group was able to find the cause of the infestation in Ivy University where Jason Woodrue, or the Floronic Man, had resurrected the Triffids and crossbreed them with the 'Audrey Jr' Venus flytrap strain in an attempt to take over the world. After successfully making an incredible escape from the Floronic Man's army of 'Neo-Triffids' due to Spellman using an experimental teleportation spell, the group was able to talk General Thaddeus E. Ross into allowing her to teleport several warheads into the heart of the Floronic Man's lair, hopefully ensuring that civilian causalities in the town would be kept to a minimum. As luck would have it the plan was a success and with the death of the Floronic Man, his supposedly superior Neo-Triffids immediately decayed into sludge. (1963)

\- Going all across the States, and even abroad, to numerous haunted mansions, castles, hospitals, asylums, and even beaches. For the most part, many of these cases turned out to be hoaxes, but in some powerful spirits unwilling to move on were encountered. One of the most notable of such cases was in 1963, when the group attempted to help a young women who was being relentlessly pursued all across Utah by a carnival of spirits only to realize that she had been dead all along and that spirits chasing her were simply trying to get her to accept this and move on. A perhaps even more tragic case in 1967 had them go to Los Angeles and banish the spirit of a young psychic girl who was killed after she herself had been possessed by several malicious spirits. (1963-1968)

\- When the group is tasked with bringing in the Munster family for the crime of being a clan of literal monsters, Addams, Bloom, and Spellman outright refuse to comply with the order and even defend the Munsters when General Ross and a task force of B.P.R.D agents are sent to do the job for them. Before a violent confrontation between the two could occur though Dr. Markway, with the aid and political clout of B.P.R.D director Trevor Bruttenholm, was able to get the B.P.R.D agents to refuse the order as well, leaving Ross with no paranormal experts to detain the Munsters. Realizing that antagonizing their only two paranormal agencies for the sake of capturing one family of non-violent monsters wasn't worth the effort, government withdraws their order. (1964)

\- In 1964, when the town of Peaksville, Ohio inexplicably disappeared leaving nothing but a crater, Dr. Markway theorized that the town could be located using Dr. Xavier powers. Tapping into the vast range of his abilities, Xavier was able to find the town trapped in a pocket-dimension. Together with Spellman's magic, the group transported themselves into this realm and investigated what caused the disappearance. It didn't take long for them to get the terrified townsfolk to admit that the one behind their disappearance was a sociopathic six-year-old boy with reality-warping powers beyond anything the group had ever encountered. When Addams tried to use his parenting skills to emotionally connect to the child and convince him to return the town back to Earth, he was banished to the mysterious 'Cornfield' for his trouble while the rest of the group became the child-god's playthings and servants like everyone else in the town. Fortunately, after a week of torture and humiliation, Dr. Markway came up with a plan. Believing that the boy was a mutant like the infamous psychic children that terrorized a British village in 1960, albeit one far more powerful, Dr. Markway thought that the boy can be killed if they shield their minds with a similar mental trick used on the children at Midwich, allowing the group to bypass the boy's telepathy and kill him while he is unaware. The plan, unfortunately, failed when Dr. Markway was unable to kill the child with an improvised shiv while Bloom, Spellman, and Dr. Xavier distract ed him. Miraculously though, before the boy could send them all to the Cornfield, Spellman was able tap into a wellspring of anger and frustration that had been building since she was forced to be the boy's 'girlfriend' and unleashed a stream of dark magic that destroyed the god-brat before he could even react. With his death, Peaksville immediately returned to Earth and everyone, including Addams, was returned from the Cornfield safe and sound. (1964)

\- Meeting under tragic circumstances, the Markway Group teamed up with the Seven Stars, a British superhero team, to defeat the extraterrestrial threat, The Mass. Unbeknownst to the general public, The Mass was, in fact, the mutated remains of famed British super-scientist Bernard Quatermass, a personal hero and inspiration for Dr. Markway, who had become infected by the same plant-like alien organism that he had defeated in his earliest adventures. The Markway Group and the Seven Stars attended his massive funeral in London, which also saw the Fantastic Four, the Challengers of the Unknown, Benton Quest, an elderly Hans Zarkov, Tom Strong, Rocky Jones, and even the mysterious shapeshifting 'Doctor' pay their respects. (1965)

\- A spree of serial murders in rural California led the group to discover the last remaining descendants of the Webber clan, a family of inbred homicidal murderers cursed with a genetic defect called Merrye Syndrome. Originally believed extinct months ago after their familial estate was destroyed in a dynamite explosion, the Webbers had actually survived the explosion by hiding in a vault underneath their estate, afterward continuing their family's long tradition of murder and cannibalism. Fortunately, once the group was able to locate their underground hideaway the trio of murderers were quickly detained and sent to Arkham Asylum in Gotham, New York for experimental treatment. Unfortunately, they like many other inmates of Arkham Asylum, were able to escape the facility in 1969. Their current whereabouts are still a mystery, though many in the FBI theorize that the three Webber children may have gone to Texas where their equally infamous distant cousins the Sawyers reside. (1967)

\- Saving not just the state of Pennsylvania, but possibly the entire world when the recently deceased in the state began to 'live' again as cannibalistic walking corpses. Desperate to cure this plague before it could spread further, the group captured one of the ghouls, took it to the Philadelphia office of STAR Labs, and performed an examination on the creature hoping for answers. While normal methods of an autopsy could find no natural, earthly cause for the reanimation, Dr. Xavier's increasingly farseeing eyes were able to detect an unknown form of cosmic radiation within the undead corpses. Connecting the origin of this strange to a space probe returning from Venus that had mysteriously exploded in low orbit, Dr. Xavier theorized that zombies would crumble if this Venusian radiation was destroyed. After escaping an almost overrun Philadelphia, the group was able to make their way to New York City where they brought their findings to Dr. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Together, Dr. Richards and Dr. Xavier were able to create a radiation cleanser using a customized version of Dr. Daisuke Serizawa's Oxygen Destroyer as the payload. Within a week of detonating this bomb several miles above Pennsylvania, the ghouls across the state once again became inert harmless corpses. (1968)

\- The final case the Markway Group undertook was investigating the opulent Bramford New York City apartment complex after the body of a woman by the name of Rosemary Woodhouse was found brutally flayed there. Secretly notified of the murder by a small group of Aurors in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who feared that this obviously magical murder was being covered up by a conspiracy in the Magical Congress of the United States of America. With that information, the group decided to infiltrate the building by having Dr. Markway and Bloom pretend to be a married couple looking for a new home with Spellman as their daughter. Addams and Dr. Xavier meanwhile worked with the Aurors to uncover members of the conspiracy in the MACUSA. Within only a couple of days, it became clear that the tenets of the building are not who they claim to be with Bloom being able to sense malevolence in their thoughts. Unfortunately, the tenets also come to realize that newest family in their building is nothing of the kind, and even identify Spellman as a descendant of the witches of Greendale. One night they ambushed the trio in their apartment, using spells of bondage to leave them hopeless. Dragging them to a secret basement in the apartment building the satanists revealed their Anti-Christ, a literal child of Satan created through the rape of the very women whose murder the group had been investigating. While technically only a few months old, the child had grown rapidly appearing as an adolescent boy and possessing a much older mind. The child ranted about how he was destined to bring upon a new age, a dark millennia where he would rule over all humanity as a demonic demigod and his followers would be his dark apostles. Fortunately, for Dr. Markway, Bloom, and Spellman, the boy's overblown monologue was cut short by Adams, Dr. Xavier, and several Aurors breaking into the basement having managed to find the cabal of dark wizards who were shielding the satanists and forced them to reveal the cult's apocalyptic motives. Regrettably, even with the rest of their teammates coming to the rescue and the Aurors knocking the satanists out with a sleeping spell, the Anti-Christ was far too powerful. With only a flick of his wrist, he flayed the Aurors alive and seemingly forced the entire Markway Group to kneel to him with telekinesis before once again raving about his future glory and proud bloodline as the son of Satan. This sin of pride would be his undoing though as Dr. Markway had managed to hide amongst the corpse of the Aurors just before the Anti-Christ restrained his colleagues. Recognizing he only had one chance to catch the monster by surprise, Dr. Markway positioned himself behind the child as he continued to rant and prepared to shot him in the back and save his team. But in the end, he still couldn't kill a child, even one that was the Anti-Christ, and hesitated allowing the child to finally notice him and attempt to kill him. Luckily, Bloom wasn't as hesitant and as the Anti-Christ turned to around to kill Dr. Markway his telekinetic grip on the rest of the group was momentarily disturbed allowing Bloom to pull out her own hidden revolver and shot the child in the back killing him. (1968)

 **Dissolution** – Feeling incapable and unworthy to lead the group after his second failure to do what needed to be done save his teammates, Dr. Markway decided to retire. With his departure, the other members believed that disbanding the group was only natural. The government officially considered the group disbanded in the fall of 1968.

 **Final Fates**

As already mentioned in this report, Dr. Markway decided to retire, but not just from the investigation group but also from frontline paranormal studies in general, believing himself too physically and mentally exhausted to continue his studies despite the many assertions of his worth from his former colleagues. Instead, he would spend his retirement teaching at Miskatonic University as a professor of parapsychology, the position allowing him more time to spend with his family.

Bloom would likewise retire from investigating the paranormal and instead take on a new mission as an activist and leader for the growing LGBT movement in the United States with her partner. Recently Bloom married her partner in 2015.

Addams history after the Markway Group's disbanding is difficult to ascertain. If sources are to believed Addams and his family have sporadically been in the public eye, with the family having apparently almost lost their entire fortune in 1992 and somehow being involved with the gruesome Camp Chippewa Massacre and the then infamous 'Black Widow' serial killer in the following year. If they were indeed involved in these events then it begs the question how Addams and his family have seemingly not aged since the 1960's and perhaps even beforehand.

Spellman returned to her hometown of Greendale as a young women who had gained a vast amount of life experience (and trauma) after spending five years with the Markway Group. Deciding that staying with her fellow witches in Greendale wasn't for her and inspired by the bravery of the Aurors during the 'Bramford Case' Spellman joined the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in New York, quickly becoming one of its top agents in the next few decades.

Dr. Xavier fate would, unfortunately, be tragic. Within only a few years of leaving the Markway Group, Dr. Xavier's vision became even more powerful, allowing him to everything from microscopic material to astral planes beyond mortal understanding. The most powerful vision he saw though was that of their being a giant eye at the center of the universe that apparently belonged to an eldritch being of raw nuclear chaos. Driven mad by these visions and unable to contact his former colleagues for help, Dr. Xavier sought the aid of a Christian evangelist living in the desert. While we will never know what that priest told Dr. Xavier we do know that the brilliant optometrist ripped his own eyes and quickly died soon after. It is said that he died with a smile on his face.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** \- Figured that posting another Horror League near Halloween was only appropriate. Hope you enjoy and feel free to leave constructive criticism or suggestions for future leagues. Also, expect the Disney League around Christmas.


	3. The Disney League

**The Defenders of the World (Once Upon a Time...)**

 **Inception** \- Once upon a time, when the mighty Sorcerer Supreme, Yen Sid, almost failed to banish the demon god Chernabog, he begrudgingly decided to gather a young group of heroes from across the different kingdoms of the ancient world (and perhaps even across different times as well) to assist him in protecting it from the forces of evil. While the proud Yen Sid wanted to call this assemble the Sorcerer's League, his young Gaelic apprentice convinced him to pick a less eponymous name and instead allow the heroes to come up with a name for themselves. They opted to call themselves the Defenders of the World, a grandiose title they would earn together after years of performing heroic acts across the known world.

 **Members**

 **Mulan the Warrior** – A soldier hailing from the Far East who had saved her homeland from a Hun invasion after secretly joining the army in her father's place by disguising herself as a man. Undeniably skilled with a blade and other forms of martial arts, this warrior women's true gift was her sense of duty and talent for unorthodox strategies. For these reasons, Yen Sid chose her to lead his Defenders as they adventured across the world, a task she quickly measured up to.

 **Heracles the Demigod** – The good-natured son of two Olympian gods whose divinity was partially stolen by the nefarious ruler of the Underworld, Hades. Even with much of his divinity gone, Heracles still possessed the strength of the ten men, and with the aid of his mentor Chiron, and lover Megara, the God-made-Mortal managed to become the Hero of Thebes, the vanquisher of his uncle Hades, and the savior of his pantheon. When asked to join the Defenders, Heracles was at first disappointed that he would not be the one to lead them (or name them the New Argonauts), but his sense of humility prevented him from succumbing to jealousy and allowed him to accept the role of Mulan's trusted second-in-command.

 **Merida the Archer** – Known throughout Scotland as both a master archer and the wild-haired princess of Clan Dunbroch, Merida was also renowned for possessing a rebellious will that almost doomed her mother to a wood witch's curse. While a bit older and slightly more mature than she was then, Merida was partially chosen to join the Defenders, despite her faults, due to the prompting of Yen Sid's Gaelic apprentice, who was once a member of Clan Dunbroch and hoped that more extraordinary experiences would make this firebrand of a princess into a capable queen for her people.

 **Aladdin the Thief** – Once a mere street thief from the Arabian kingdom of Agrabah, this cunning rogue had earned the privilege to marry the princess of his land after a long series of events involving a genie, a power-mad vizier, a romantic midnight flight, and an act of self-sacrifice. But even with wealth, love, and a new family, Aladdin still yearned to see whole new worlds away from his desert homeland. Thus, when Yen Sid and his apprentice came for him with their offer, he quite literally jumped at the chance, but not before getting his betrothed's approval and the Sorcerer's assurance, he would be able to visit back regularly.

 **Moana the Wayfinder** – The young new chieftess of the Polynesian kingdom of Motunui, Moana had mended an ancient corruption that was plaguing her island home with the aid of the seas themselves, a shapeshifting demigod, and her own compassion. Perhaps more importantly though, she had reinvigorated her people's love of navigation and discovery. Given her magical connection to the sea and her mastery of sailing, Yen Sid tried to recruit her but found her initially unwilling to his League due to her new responsibility as chieftess. Indeed, it was only after her family and tribe encouraged her to follow her heart and adventure out into the world that she changed her mind.

 **Arthur the Once and Future King** – The youngest member of the Defenders at the age of twelve, Arthur, or Wart as he was commonly called in his youth, was an orphan boy who had become King of England after miraculous pulling the magic sword Excalibur from an enchanted stone. While a shy lad unaccustomed to the duties that kingship entailed, the boy king still had a kind-heart and willingness to learn that endeared him to many who knew him. Given his youth though, even when compared to the other Defenders, Yen Sid was skeptical of the value of recruiting him to his League but was convinced by his friend and contemporary Merlin to give the boy a chance to prove himself, and hopefully learn from his slightly older heroic companions.

 **Team Dynamics** – Overwhelmingly positive. Regardless of the disparate nations and cultures, they came from, the members of the Sorcerer's League were all idealistic heroes with a thirst for adventure and a desire to help others. As a result, they rarely came into significant conflict with one another. While there were initial personality clashes at beginning of their time together they were quickly overcome. Heracles and Mulan, the eldest members of the League, had a strong friendship with one another, both respecting the other's martial training and leadership skills. Merida's and Moana's similar personalities and experiences when it came to balancing their royal duties and their own desires for freedom made them fast friends as well, and they even regarded each other as sisters. Aladdin's roguish nature and personal charm made him well liked by the other members of the League. Arthur was doted on by all and treated as the League's collective protege. This was especially true in regard to his relationship with Mulan who he squired for while adventuring with the League.

 **Quests**

\- To test their capabilities, Yen Sid's first quest for his League was sending them to confront the Sanderson sisters, a trio of English sorceresses that had been stealing the youth of children for centuries. With Arthur volunteering to serve as a bait, the heroes were able to ambush the witches in Brocéliande Forest and seal them away within Merlin's Grimhold, a powerful relic capable of entrapping the greatest of evils.

\- When the lords of the Southern Islands begged for noble heroes to assist them in their ongoing war against the snow queen of Arendelle, and her Coronian allies, Yen Sid hastily sent his warriors to aid them with little information or details on the origin of the conflict. The Southern Islanders made up for Yen Sid's vagueness by reciting horrific tales of the snow queen's many monstrous crimes, which included everything from executing captured prisoners of war by freezing the blood in their bodies to carnal incest with her own sister. But as the heroes traveled to Arendelle and walked amongst its capital as foreign merchants they saw no sign of the tyranny and poverty that supposedly exemplified the queen's reign. Merida was the first to notice contradiction and when she pressed Prince Hans, their unwelcome guide and handler for the quest, she found his answers wanting and all too familiar to courtly misdirection and half-truths that there were deployed by her clan's territorial rivals. Revealing her concerns to rest of the Defenders when their supposed ally was temporarily away, Merida convinced the others to abandon their original plan of storming Castle Arendelle and capturing the snow queen and instead proposed risking their own capture by meeting the queen in person so that they could determine for themselves whether she was the monster everyone in the Southern Islands claimed she was. When Mulan asked about what they'd do if the queen was evil and tried to capture or kill them, Merida is said to have laughed at the possibility and pointed to her bow as if in answer. Luckily, the gambit was a success, with the League being told by the queen herself the true history between the two warring nations. Quickly flipping their allegiance and detaining Prince Hans, the League would go on to assist Arendelle in their war, eventually succeeding in forcing the Southern Isles to end the conflict in a truce. Afterwards, once the League returned from the war, Yen Sid commended them for passing another of his tests by seeing past the lords of the Southern Islands deception. It is said the heroes themselves were more irritated by the duplicity of the test than proud for passing it.

\- Saving the last dragon eggs in Urland (a neighboring kingdom to Arthur's England) from King Cassiodorus and his army of fanatical religious supporters genocidal pogrom that sought to rid the realm of dragons, regardless of whether they were aggressive or not. Aladdin's talent for thievery was vital in this quest for the Defenders had to steal the eggs from Cassiodorus' very own castle dungeons before he could publicly destroy them. The heroes took the eggs to the northern island of Berk where they could be safe, and perhaps more importantly, be properly trained to live peacefully among humans.

\- When Loki and Hades joined forces to bring down their respective pantheons and divide the Earth amongst themselves in the aftermath, the pair decided to frame Heracles for the theft of the divine hammer Mjolnir as part of their plan, knowing full well that doing so would lead to war between the Theoi of Olympus and the Aesir of Asgard. While Odin and Zeus prepared their pantheons for all-out war against the other, the Defenders were forced into hiding, Yen Sid being unable to risk the ire of the two pantheons by directly shielding the group. Hunted across the across the Earth by Thor and his Warriors Three, the heroes were eventually corned by the thunder god and his companions. When Heracles' dogged assertions of innocence failed to convince the Son of Odin, the strongman of Olympus asked for a trial by combat against him in a last-ditch effort to exonerate himself and save his friends. Accepting the duel, the two fought each other unarmed, using their strength as their only weapon. While Thor was indeed mighty he wasn't as skilled at brawling as he was with his famous hammer and Heracles came out the winner of the duel, forcing Thor to concede after catching him in an unescapable grapple. While Heracles could have simply killed him to win the duel, Heracles' willingness to show mercy was what ultimately convinced the thunder god of his innocence, more so than the actual duel itself. Working together, the two groups were able to surmise that only Hades and Loki could have been behind it all, and tracked down the deadly alliance to their lair in the pocket realm known as The World That Never Was. Only after fighting hordes of undead and heartless abominations did the two groups manage to bring the duo to justice, retrieve Mjolnir and avert the war of the gods before it could even truly begin.

\- Using Moana's connection to the ocean, the League forced the armies of two rival underwater kingdoms, one a technological marvel and the other inhabited by mermaids yet both coincidentally named Atlantis, to stop their onslaught and come to the meeting table. With Moana serving as the ocean's representative, a peace treaty was finally negotiated between the two kingdoms, ending over a century of warfare.

\- An attempt to rescue Princes kidnapped by the newly crowned Grand High Witch Maleficent and her coven of fellow sorceresses from being sacrificed to the legendary Black Cauldron in a bid to resurrect the Horned King (Maleficent's former protégé and lover) went wrong when their male teammates were magically enchanted by Maleficent to do her bidding, thus forcing the remaining female members of the Defenders to make their escape and gather their own powerful alliance of women. With the assistance of Yen Sid apprentice's magic, they quickly gathered the spouses and significant others of the enthralled Princes, many of which were already plotting their own individual rescue attempt, and brought them together for an assault upon Maleficent's tower in the infamous Enchanted Forest. While the battle was arduous, with Mulan almost being cut down by a spellbound Arthur and Merida confronting a vengeful witch whose home she had accidentally destroyed, the Defenders and their royal allies achieved victory when Princess Aurora took up her husband's sword and lunged it into Maleficent's heart. With her death, the Princes and the male Defenders were freed from her magic and her coven quickly scattering to the winds in retreat.

\- Perhaps more than any League in history, the Defenders traveled across the known world and beyond. While some of these voyages were quests on Yen Sid's behalf with a specific purpose in mind, such as slaying a rampaging chaos dragon known as the Jabberwocky in Wonderland or rescuing bewitched children trapped on Neverland from the mad boy immortal Peter Pan and his even madder fairy minion, most of them were simply expeditions too far off kingdoms and dimensions and were more focused on exploration and learning than dangerous questing or monster slaying. To name just a handful of the myriad of places they visited; the Defenders traveled throughout the bright continent of Africa and were granted the rare privilege to enter the highly advanced civilization of Wakanda, seeing the legendary onyx panthers that dot the kingdom firsthand. They were even allowed to take a few of famously indestructible starmetal weapons native to Wakanda as parting gifts. The heroes also, perhaps unknowingly, bore witness to a civil war between lion prides that was taking place in the African savannah. In the north, they repeatedly visited old friends and allies, such as the dragon tamers of Berk and the ice queen of Arendelle, but also made it a point to go further north and see the trolls of the Valley of the Living Rock and the arctic kingdom of Freezenburg. Using a raft made by Moana herself, the Defenders traveled across the seas, visiting the beautiful and peaceful isles of Izayoi and Hakalo, both which were islands that Moana's people had traveled to during their last golden age of exploration. They also barely managed to avoid being turned into donkeys when they were momentarily ensnared by the hedonism of Pleasure Island. More obscure kingdoms like superstitious Drusselstein, barbaric Udrogoth, and infamously stinking Odiferous did not escape the Defenders notice either, though most in the League found these journeys less than fulfilling or and even a bit mundane. In contrast, their trips to different unearthly realms like the lion ruled kingdom of Narnia, the fey-inhabited Pixie Hollow, the strange realm of Oz ruled by the child queen Ozma, the even stranger kingdom of Mewni with its own dynasty of mighty queens, and the surprising wholesome, if sometimes disturbing, Halloweentown was anything but boring.

\- The last great quest the Defenders of the World would take would be their confrontation with Chernabog, who had been summoned back to the realm of mortals by the Sanderson triplets, who themselves had broken free from their own imprisonment due to Merlin accidentally destroying the Grimhold in one of his sporadic moments of fey madness. When Merlin regained his sanity and realized what he had done, he alerted Yen Sid who tasked the Defenders to once again deal with the sisters. It was ultimately this fear of being recaptured in the Grimhold that prompted the sisters to risk their souls, and all of humanity's as well, by summoning demon god at Bald Mountain. When the Defenders finally tracked the sisters to Bald Mountain, Chernobog was already loose and rampaging across the countryside, summoning an army of demons, undead, and witches to his side. Believing that the heroes would be unable to deal with Chernobog themselves, Yen Sid forcefully dismissed them and battled the god of darkness alone. It would be a fatal mistake. Old age had finally caught up to the antediluvian Yen Sid and though he weakened Chernobog considerably in their battle he could not banish the demon god once more and was killed in his attempt. With Yen Sid dead all hope seemed lost with the monster continuing his literal hellraising that was quickly killing hundreds of innocents. Refusing to allow such evil to continue and wishing to avenge their fallen patron, the Defenders gathered a host of their allies and friends. Knights from England, ice golems from Arendelle, dragonriders from Berk, Atlanteans, Olympians, Asgardians, talking woodland creatures from the Enchanted Forest, and other such allies joined the Defenders army and confronted Chernabog's infernal forces. With Mulan leading the army Chernabog's forces were overwhelmed, and the demon god himself was banished back to wince he came when Mulan, borrowing her squire's famous sword, gave him a terrible blow.

 **Dissolution** \- With Yen Sid dead his apprentice took him his mantle as Sorcerer Supreme. Being far younger and more capable of defending the world by herself, the Defenders were offered the opportunity to disband and return to their homelands. While more than willing to continue, a longing for home had begun to affect each of the heroes and thus they solemnly accepted the offer and disbanded, but not before having a massive celebration for their time together and swearing to visit one another whenever possible.

 **Final Fates**

Mulan returned to China where she became an even more revered general and hero of her nation after repelling another series of Hun invasions.

Heracles' life would be one of tragedy and triumph. Shortly after returning to Greece he would marry his beloved Megara and start a family. Unfortunately, Hades' magical manipulations would cause Heracles to murder his own wife and child while temporarily driven mad. Seeking redemption, Heracles went through a series of labors, that the last of which took him to the Underworld where he battled his uncle for the last time. While both died in the battle, Heracles was rewarded for a life of noble acts and courage by being reunited his family in the Elysium Fields.

Merida went on to become the wise, if fierce, leader of her clan after he father's death. Unsurprisingly to those who knew her best, Merida never married and would instead pass on the throne to the oldest of her triplet brothers.

Aladdin finally married his betrothed Jasmine and would rule Agrabah as her prince-consort until the end of their days.

Moana sailed backed to her homeland bringing with her treasures, and perhaps more importantly, maps from her journeys. As chieftess of her tribe, Moana bravely took her people further then they'd ever gone before.

Lastly, the events of Arthur's life as an adult are far too long for this chronicle to record. What is relevant is that Arthur's actions as king of Camelot would make him a nigh mythic figure in British history.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** – I'm disappointed with this one. I feel as if I could have done much more with a Disney League, but inspiration seemed to have abandoned me halfway through. My prose felt weak too. Oh well. I at least hope you folks out there enjoyed the chapter.

Anyways, the next League writeup is reviewer's choice! Either a funky Blaxploitation League set in the 70s or a totally radical 80s League focusing on sci-fi adventure and a bunch of other 80s tropes and genres. You can blame the newest season of Stranger Things for why I got interested in doing the later. Say which one you want me to do in the reviews.


	4. The 80s Nostalgia League

**The Brat Pack (Throughout the 1980s)**

 **Inception** – This League set itself apart from many of its predecessors for several reasons. First, unlike other Leagues throughout history, it served no government, nor did it have a powerful patron that sponsored it. In fact, due to the anarchist leanings of its leader, and her history with dealing with less than helpful powerful institutions, the League was in many ways explicitly anti-authoritarian, much preferring to deal with crises their own way without outside inference that they deemed untrustworthy. This tendency towards rebelliousness would become more prominent as the League would go on and clash with forces aligned with the conservative governments of the 1980s.

Second, while the League was primarily fixed in the 1980s, it did not go through the decade linearly. Instead, due to the League's access to a time machine (and lack of government restricts on how they could use it, unlike the 1988 American League led by Dr. Emmett Brown), the group frequently went from one year in the decade to another during their adventures. As a result, trying to determine how long the League lasted chronologically is something of a pointless exercise, which this chronicle will not entertain.

Finally, the very reason for the team's existence was extraordinary even by League standards. Brought together by Dorothy McShane, or Ace, as she preferred to be called, it was formed as a consequence of a cosmic-level conflict known only as the Time War. Ace saw that the intergalactic conflict was putting the Earth in jeopardy through temporal ripple effects, a sort of cosmic fallout that was primarily affecting her 'home' decade of the 1980s. These ripples distorted humanity's collective timeline, creating dangerous branching points in time that if not dealt with would create countless nightmarish and dystopian futures for the entire human race.

Ace begged the Time Lords, all-powerful alien stewards of time, to shield her home from these aftershocks, but her pleas were ignored as unimportant to the larger war. With the Time Lords unwilling to help, and her mentor 'The Professor' long-missing, she was forced to seek allies of her own. Thus, the Brat Pack was formed, a group of mostly young adults whom Ace met mostly at random, trying to fix a problem that no else seemed willing to confront or believe in.

 **Members**

 **Dorothy 'Ace' McShane** \- Time's Vigilante, the Seventh's Ward, Friendleader, and Ace, are just some of the monikers and names that this brash young time traveler had been known to use over the years. Originally a just teenage girl from London, England, Ace had become the companion of the alien time traveler known as the Doctor. She spent years traveling with him throughout time and space but eventually grew disillusioned with the man after his constant lies and manipulations led to the death of someone she cared for. Afterwards, she traveled alone across the universe until her wandering led her to the Time Lord homeworld of Gallifrey, where she became the first human to enroll in their legendary time academy. Joining the Gallifreyan temporal policing service known as the Celestial Intelligence Agency after graduating, Ace tried to adhere to the rules and regulations of the CIA but found them just as stifling and controlling as her old mentor. This tension eventually came to ahead when the Time Lords refusal to listen to her fears about the Earth's safety forced her to abandon the agency. Stealing a TARDIS, a highly advanced, and spatially impossible, time machine beyond even what human chrononauts such as Dr. Emmett Brown or Jacob von Hogflume could even imagine, Ace returned to the Earth and formed the Brat Pack. Even after all her experiences and adventures through time, Ace was still at heart a rebellious and opinionated young woman, whose tough, streetwise exterior, and love for making explosives, hid a depth of compassion for the downtrodden.

 **Leroy Green** – A martial artist from New York City, Leroy had achieved the final level of martial arts mastery after confronting and defeating the once infamous Kung-Fu master and gang leader Sho'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem. This allowed him to tap into 'The Glow,' a physically empowering mystical chi energy not too dissimilar to the supernatural abilities used by other famous martial artists, such as Danny Rand and Shang-Chi. Leroy himself was a kind and thoughtful young man with a sincere respect for Chinese culture and a personal admiration of Bruce Lee, who he considered his role model. Leroy joined the Brat Pack after Ace helped him permanently disband the Gramercy Riffs, which had been taken over by his old nemesis Sho'Nuff, who had planned on using the gang, and its many criminal allies, in a plot to first take his revenge against Leroy and then move on to take over the entire city as the Duke of New York.

 **Alex Rogan** \- One of last of the once great Starfighters, this ace GunStar pilot, had once just been an average teenager living a mostly dead-end existence. That was until his high score in a video game got him noticed by the Star League, a united federation of planets dedicated to mutual defense from intergalactic threats, who had used the game as a secret scouting tool. While at first hesitant about getting involved in an intergalactic war that he knew little about, Alex took to being a Starfighter naturally, saving the Star League from the invading Ko-Dan Armada and even deciding to stay in space and rebuild the Starfighters. Alex first met Ace when she was still traveling with the Doctor, the two having helped save the entire Star League from a plot concocted by the despot Ming the Merciless. Thus, when she asked Alex to join her own budding League he was torn between his duties to the Star League and his desire to protect his former home. Ultimately, Alex chose to aid Ace in her mission, believing correctly that it wouldn't be long until the worlds of the Star League were affected by the consequences of the Time War and began to suffer their own fractured timelines.

 **Charlene 'Charlie' McGee** \- While all the members of the Brat Pack had at one time or another faced challenges that left them with traumas they'd prefer to forget, Charlie's past before joining the League likely exceeds them all (with the possible exception of Ash) when it came to tragedy and injustice. The child of two former university students who had gained meta-human abilities after unknowingly volunteering in a secret government experiment, Charlie had inherited both of her parent's powers and much more, being capable of mind control, telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, and most strikingly pyrokinesis. Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of her parents to live a normal life, her abilities caught the attention of 'The Shop,' the very government organization that had given her parents their powers in the first place. Determined to use Charlie for military purposes, the Shop's agents tracked her family down, murdering her mother and capturing her and her father. Charlie eventually managed to escape the Shop's facility, but not without her father sacrificing himself to ensure her escape. Afterwards, Charlie tried to expose the Shop's and the government's wrongdoings but found that major publications were either unwilling to believe her or were too afraid of backlash to run her story. Defeated, alone, and believing she was only one willing to stop the Shop, Charlie for a time went on her own private crusade against them, tracking down their remaining facilities and destroying them one after another. It was ultimately an encounter with Ace in 1984, where she talked Charlie out of destroying the once Shop affiliated Hawkins Institute, that Charlie realized that she'd be able to do more good as part of a team than alone. While the youngest member of the Brat Pack, Charlie was without a doubt the most powerful, her constantly growing psychic powers making her nigh-invincible. In terms of personality, Charlie was more intelligent, determined and serious-minded, than most girls her age. She also notably always made sure to reign in her emotions due to her powers tendency to react to particularly strong ones, such as anger or stress.

 **Ashley 'Ash' Williams** \- This young man's recruitment in the Brat Pack was actually a mistake on Ace's part. Thinking that recruiting a person with experience with fighting the supernatural would be vital for her League given the varied threats she believed it would encounter, she tried to use her TARDIS to pluck Ash right after he had defeated the demonic Deadites, but before he was sent to the Dark Ages through a supernatural time portal. Unfortunately, her calculations were off, and she ended up grabbing an Ash from an 'older' timeline. This Ash was not the capable demonslayer that Ace had hoped to recruit, but instead a terrified and traumatized young man who had been forced to kill his possessed friends and survive a night of horrors. Knowing that sending him back to his own timeline would likely mean his erasure from existence due to the 'true' overtaking the older one, Ace decided to allow Ash to stay with the Brat Pack and live in her TARDIS until she found a way to merge him with his parallel self. Ash was more than grateful for her hospitality, and really only wanted a place to recover them his trauma. While he did eventually earn his place among the extraordinary members of the Brat Pack, Ash was more or less tagged along during their early adventures, desperately trying to help however he could but still tormented by what he's seen and done.

 **Johnny Five** \- A robot created for military purposes that had become self-aware after being struck by lightning, Johnny 5 was, in the philosophical sense anyway, alive. Created by NOVA Labs, a prominent military tech company that in the 80s managed to rival both the veteran Stark Industries and fellow newcomer Cyberdyne Systems for a time due to its profitable contract with the US military, Johnny had escaped from their research lab shortly after becoming self-aware. Meeting friendly humans who not only accepted him as a sentient being, but even helped him fight off NOVA Labs when they wanted to capture and reprogram him, the A.I. had been laying low at a one of his new friends secluded cabin for some time when Ace showed up at his door with an offer to join her League, stating that she needed someone with advanced technical know-how and that he'd get to experience the world like never before. Unbeknownst to Johnny at the time Ace had ulterior motives for recruiting him, which this chronicle will explain in detail later on. Johnny was decidedly the most carefree and jovial member of the Brat Pack, his comedic nature and childlike wonder at anything new making him the group's collective sidekick.

 **Team Dynamics** \- True Companions. Despite their disparate origins, experiences, and talents, the Brat Pack worked well together throughout the entirety of its existence and is likely one of the most cohesive Leagues ever formed. Much of this camaraderie can be chalked up to the fact that unlike many of the Leagues that came before them or after, Brat Pack were friends first and colleagues in a League second. In fact, when not on strange adventures they would socialize amongst each other like normal teenagers and young adults, using Ace's TARDIS as not only their mobile headquarters, but also as a shared home where they'd engage in a variety of activities like partying, having movie nights, and even playing early tabletop RPGs together. This laidback atmosphere was directly encouraged by Ace, who despite technically be the leader of the League refused the title and preferred that major decisions be made together as a group.

 **Adventures**

\- Going to Tromaville, New Jersey, and teaming up with town's local superhero, the misshapen but benign Toxic Avenger, to wipe out a horde of man-eating mutants. Originally from the radioactive sewers of the New York, these mutants had migrated to Tromaville in a plot to recoup their numbers by sabotaging the town's nuclear plant and causing a meltdown that would have mutated the entire community's already mutation-prone residents. It would have been the first chain in a series of events that would have led to World War Three, but thanks to Johnny and the Toxic Avenger delivering an explosive designed by Ace to the mutant's heavily contaminated underground den, such a nightmarish future was avoided. (1984)

\- Clashing a Battle of the Bands held on Halloween night in the formerly puritanical small town of Bomont. The town's youth had invited several relative unknowns, like the Taekwondo practicing members of Dragon Sound and the stoner duo of the Wyld Stallyns, to their high school to perform, only for them, and the musicians, to become possessed by the demonic spirits of the heavy metal rock star, Sammi Curr, and his literal bride from Hell, Mary Lou. After an attempt at physically attacking, and then blowing up, the two spirits failed due to their incorporeal nature, the Brat Pack regrouped and used the TARDIS to quickly travel to New York City and get the aid of a quartet of parapsychologists. Even with these scientists help though the fight was hard fought and only ended with the Brat Pack being victorious when Ash, triggered by the all too familiar carnage occurring around him, had a psychotic break and paved a bloody path through the possessed teens and musicians allowing the scientists reach the spirits and contain them, thus putting an end to the mass possession with a relatively minimal loss of life. Notably, it was this early adventure where the Brat Pack got their name, having been called such sarcastically by the leader of the parapsychologists. Ace and the rest of the group took the insult in stride and appropriated it for lack of a better name. (1989)

\- While the Brat Pack rarely used the TARDIS to time travel outside the 1980s, due to Ace's fear of either accidentally messing up the past or being trapped in a false possible future, they did make a few noteworthy exceptions and traveled into the very dystopian timelines they wanted to prevent from even existing. Travelling to the ruins of Neo-Tokyo in 2019, they helped a young woman by the name of Kei escape from her country's fascist government which feared the psychic powers she was developing. This act of kindness ultimately backfired though when Kei powers overwhelmed her just like it did all the other psychics of her timeline. In another possible 2019, they tried to discover a way to extend the lifespans of a genetic slave caste but found that even with advanced Gallifreyan and Star League medical science there was nothing to be done. In a timeline where a bureaucratic and totalitarian state ruled the world, they tried to create a resistance and liberate its oppressed people. Similarly, this too didn't work out as the Brat Pack had hoped as even after they helped bring down one corrupt state another one simply took its place and was just as incompetent as its predecessor. Surprisingly, their most successful mission in the future was an excursion to a post-apocalyptic wasteland in Australia. There they meet a small tribe of semi-feral children who had taken up residence in the ruins of Sydney. While the children were at first apprehensive about receiving the Brat Pack's help they eventually accepted them and let the group educate them about the 'Old World' and how to make their small community thrive.

\- Using Leroy's knowledge of the world of martial arts and Chinese culture, the Brat Pack foiled the nefarious plans of Lo Pan, a twice-dead sorcerer from ancient China. Seeking to regain a physical form, Lo Pan sought to possess the body of a great warrior and thus sponsored an underground martial arts tournament in San Francisco's Chinatown, wherein the final victor would end being his host. Knowing the only way to make Lo Pan reveal himself in the open, and thus leave him susceptible to "borrowed" spirit-trapping tech, was by participating in the tournament, Leroy entered it himself. While he was successful in defeating former US captain Frank Dux and the wannabe American ninja Joe Armstrong, Leroy unexpectedly lost to Daniel LaRusso's signature crane kick. Realizing that the young martial artist was doomed without his help, Leroy tried to convince Daniel that Lo Pan's prize was nothing of sort, but found that he was unwilling to listen until his former mentor, Keisuke Miyagi, was convinced himself of Leroy's claims. Together the trio of martial artists, along with the rest of the Brat Pack and the other contestants of the tournament were able to banish Lo Pan's legions of demonic servants, led by the archdemon Sardo Numspa, and permanently seal away the sorcerer's evil spirit once and for all. (1986)

\- When a telepathic cry for help alerted Charlie to the existence of another psychic out in the world, she asked the rest of the Brat Pack to help her find them. They of course agreed and using Alex's cloaked GunStar they flew across the US, eventually pinpointing the psychic call in a small, secluded town in Maine. They quickly discover though that they weren't the only ones who had heard the call. Another group had arrived before them. Tethered by a growing psychic connection, these two groups quickly found one another in the town's local library. There the Brat Pack was introduced to a young girl by the name of Jane Hopper and her party of friends. While Charlie and Jane were overjoyed to meet someone with similar powers, they both quickly realized that neither of them had sent the cry for help. Sensing the psychic transmission was somewhere under the town, Charlie convinced everyone that there was probably a hidden Shop facility down in the town's sewers, though Jane felt more wary about going down there for reasons she could not yet explain. It turned out that Charlie was wrong. There was no secret Shop facility and no psychic child in need of help either in those sewers. The telepathic cry that Charlie and Jane had felt was a deception orchestrated by a shapeshifting creature that Ace would later surmise to have originally come from 'Todash Space,' a nightmarish realm of infinite nothingness that exists between universes and is inhabited by abominations so monstrous and powerful that even the Time Lords feared to tread there. The creature sought to consume a 'shining' child so it could more quickly regenerate from the wounds it recently suffered in a battle with a group of children that managed to harm it. Fortunately, the monster did not anticipate for its intended victims to bring friends. Thus, when it tried its typical predatory tactics it found itself unable to succinctly terrify its resilient quarry. The creature was desperate though and might have succeed in devouring Charlie, who was temporarily mesmerized when the creature took the form of her deceased father, if not for arrival of Carrie White, who was in the area and had sensed the psychic cry but knew it to be a trap due to her experience with dealing with the supernatural forces that stalked Maine. Since she was momentarily delayed dealing with zombies in the nearby town of Ludlow she could only send a psychic transmission of own, warning the other psychics of the danger, a warning that only Jane picked up. Together the three psychics were able to concentrate their powers and immolate the shapeshifter, seemingly destroying it for good. Afterwards, all parties involved in vanquishing the monster had a celebration of sorts for the victory. Alex took a few of Jane's friends on a ride on the GunStar, while Ace offered them the chance to play a game of D&D using an edition from the future. Charlie, Jane, and Carrie discussed the differing tactics they used to control their powers and how they their powers might be all connected to experiments done by the Shop. And Carrie told Ace of the existence another League of youths led by her former League of Extraordinary Investigators teammate, Velma Dinkley. Ultimately, all three parties departed, but not before promising to keep contact with one another and swearing come to the other's defense whenever they were in need. (1989)

\- Freeing kidnapped Colorado teenagers from Project: Red Dawn, a virtual reality scenario meant to brainwash American youths into accepting Red Scare paranoia. Created by the Reagan administration as a necessary evil, the simulation used the sensory transfer technology of Project: Brainstorm, an early form of benign virtual reality technology that was re-purposed for military use, and the appropriated mind control techniques of G.I. Joe nemesis, Dr. Brian Binder, to force its teenage victims to live out a horrific, if highly improbable, scenario, where the US is invaded by an alliance of Soviet and Cuban paratroopers and they, must take up arms to defend themselves as child guerrilla soldiers. The Brat Pack's destruction of Project: Red Dawn's central indoctrination facility in Calumet, Colorado, and leaking of the facility's activities to a young Edison Carter, is what ultimately started their less than cordially, and often violent, relationship with the Reagan government, and other right-wing Western governments in the 80s. (1984)

\- Avoiding several attempts at capture, or outright execution, at the hand's various conservative government agencies and operatives, who either wanted to stop their "terrorist" actions or sought to seize or study the powerful technologies and individuals (Leroy, Charlie, and Johnny especially) the League possessed. The than absurdly well-funded, and most effective mixed task force of the US at the time, the G.I. Joe Team was frequently sent to apprehend the Brat Pack. Led by their field commander Conrad S. Hauser a small squad of Joes almost succeed in capturing them outside Hawkins, Indiana, when they were just leaving the town in the GunStar after visiting friends there. Shooting down the GunStar using a VAMP Mark II and leaving the Brat Pack stranded and barely alive in a remote country pumpkin patch, the Joes would have likely succeeded in their mission if not for Charlie momentarily using the full extent of her powers and freezing the minds of the Joes just long enough for the League to escape. The effort almost killed her though and the League was forced to seek the help of Carrie White to treat her psychic exertion. While this was the closest the Joe Team ever came to capturing the group, there were several other violent encounters. The most notable likely being Alex's dogfight with G.I. Joe ace pilot, Brad J. Armbruster, where he got to avenge the loss of the GunStar 01 and Leroy's near-fatal single combat with the Joe Team's mysterious ninja operative, Snake Eyes. The Brat Pack also ran afoul of the UK's two major alien-hunting agencies, the mostly benign U.N.I.T and the morally compromised and xenophobic Torchwood Institute, the latter of the pair frequently attempted to capture Ace's TARDIS for study, and Ace herself due to her connection to the Doctor and half-Time Lord nature. Lastly, the 1988 American League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was once ordered by Reagan to neutralize the Brat Pack, but given that the youths had secretly saved the American League from being trapped in the cyber-realm of Tron, they deliberately failed to catch them. Eventually, the frustrated president decided the whole pursuit was a waste of taxpayer money and not worth effort for catching "Just a bunch of anarchistic punks," and stopped sending teams after them. (1981-1989)

\- Encountering and allying with the Mystery League, a group of young paranormal investigators, to track down what both teams believed to be a group of vampires exsanguinating people all across the state of New Mexico. It is said that the teams at first got along quite well, with Charlie bonding with the Mystery League's own psychic, Tina Shepard, and informing her of the existence of others like them, Ash talking with Nancy Thompson about his traumas and how best to treat them, and Ace getting advice on leadership from Velma Dinkley. Regrettably, this comradery momentarily ceased when the two teams found the vampires and captured them. It turned out that the bloodthirsty vampires they were looking for were both children. For the Mystery League this wasn't the time they had encountered child-monsters and though they explained to the Brat Pack that they would take no joy from it that they had to destroy the creatures. The Brat Pack were unconvinced, to say the least, and called out the other League for having a werewolf on their team and yet obviously not considering him dangerous and worthy of destruction. Ace, in particular, argued that the children might be cured using Time Lord technology created during a Gallifreyan conflict with 'Great Vampires,' though even she admitted it was a long shot. Dinkley was sympathetic to Ace's convictions but informed her that a cure for the children was impossible now given that they had already killed so many already and as consequence were damned. Ace understandably considered this explanation to be nonsense, and warned the Mystery League of what would happen if they tried to kill the children. While accounts vary on who made the first move (this chronicle estimates that Edgar Frog of the Mystery League was the most likely culprit given his extreme hatred of vampires) the two Leagues clashed, both with the intent of simply disabling on the other. The two League were equally matched with Charlie and Tina both straining themselves using their psychic powers to fight one another, Leroy and Scott Howard dueled each other with Scott using his lycanthropic abilities to match the power of Leroy's 'Glow," while Alex and Edgar got into an old-fashioned brawl. Ultimately, the question of which League would come up on top would be a moot point as the two vampire children used the fight as an opportunity to attack a distracted Dinkley. Ironically enough it was Ace that saved the aging investigator, using one of Edgar's dropped stakes to quickly impale both vampires. With that, both Leagues stopped their fighting. While still alarmed by what just happened, Ace did concede to Dinkley she was right about the children. Afterwards, both Leagues made their apologies and promised to maintain contact with each other in case another threat warranting both two teams cropped up, though their relationship was never as warm as it was when they first meet. (1986)

\- When Johnny suddenly disappeared from his cabin residence, his teammates were able to locate him using a tracking device that Ace had secretly put into the robot without his knowledge, stating that she knew that Johnny was always fated to be one day taken by one of the many robotic and computing corporations of the era, and used as the fundamental basis for a genocidal A.I.'s neural matrix. Knowing that the creation of such an A.I. would led to another dystopian future for humanity but not knowing which corporation would ultimately be responsible, Ace secretly installed Johnny with the tracker knowing that it would lead her to the lab where the A.I. would be conceived. While Charlie, Leroy, and Alex were less than thrilled by this deception they nevertheless still used the tracker to find their friend in the robotics labs of Cyberdyne System's branch office in Detroit. Their plan to rescue him didn't go as they had planned though and what followed after the Brat Pack was in the lab was anarchy. As it turned out Johnny was not the only robot captured by Cyberdyne Systems. An android named V.I.C.I was also stolen by Cyberdyne from her creator, Ted Lawson, a lesser known robotics engineer working for Cyberdyne System's industry rival United Robotronics and a protégé of the deceased genius android maker Dr. Goldfoot. Ted Lawson was so desperate to find V.I.C.I, who had come to see as a daughter, that he sought the aid of the infamous hyper-violent cyborg vigilante Robo-Cop and begged the man-machine to find her. Regrettably, for the Brat Pack, he succeeded at the just the same time as they did. Using his datalink to clandestine FBI, CIA, and G.I. Joe watchlists, he identified the Brat Pack as terrorists and opened fired on the group. If not for Charlie's telekinetic powers and Leroy's legendary bullet-catching skills, Ace, Alex, and Ash would have died almost instantaneously in a hail of gunfire. Fortunately, for the Brat Pack, they were saved from this battle by another one suddenly getting in the way. Corporate espionage had tipped off both Omni Consumer Products and NOVA Labs to Cyberdyne having managed to capture to not one, but two sentient robots, one which was the latter's former asset. Both corporations had sent agents to infiltrate Cyberdyne's Detroit office and take the robots for themselves. With these agents suddenly engaging with each other and Robo-Cop and the Brat Pack, it became clear to both would-be rescuers that this new element demanded a temporary alliance until both squads of corporate operatives were dealt with. After eliminating the agents, destroying the lab, and escaping from Cyberdyne with Johnny and V.I.C.I, Robo-Cop thanked the reunited Brat Pack for assisting him in his mission but pressed that if they returned to Detroit "There will be trouble", a threat that the youths took seriously. Johnny for his part was, perhaps unsurprisingly, largely unaffected by the revelation of Ace's secret motives for getting him to join the League, stating that he understood her reasons. That said, he was noted to have reiterated a phrase he had picked up during the League's adventures, "Friends don't lie" something that Ace dedicated herself to standing by after the mission. (1987)

\- Given the more laidback nature of the Brat Pack, the group routinely traveled for recreational purposes, using the TARDIS or the GunStar to go to unusual places and meet interesting individuals and groups. For instance, they went to sunny Beach City, Delmarva, to visit the beautiful Crystal Temple there and try to catch a glimpse of the strange aliens that inhabited it. Similarly, they braved the stinking sewers of New York City to try and find a quartet reptilian mutants that were apparently behind the defeat of infamous ninja crime lord Shredder, but found nothing but rotten pizza slices and mutated homeless people for their efforts. The Brat Pack tended to be more successful in their explorations whenever they joined forces with other extraordinary groups. Together with Buckaroo Banzai's Hong Kong Cavaliers, a band that the Brat Pack became familiar after helping them take down the supervillains of the World Crime League, they managed to temporarily open a gateway to the Upside Down and for a time to explore the strange parallel dimension. Fortunately, it did not take long for both groups to regret the experiment and cease further explorations. In joint cases with Velma Dinkley's Mystery League they were able to not only rediscover the Nebraskan town of Gatlin, and rescue the brainwashed children that were trapped there, and also give Ash a small amount of emotional closure by returning to the haunted cabin in Michigan backcountry where his last group of friends were possessed and help him bury their mutilated bodies. They also retrieved the infamous Necronomicon for safekeeping while there. Lastly, the League frequently traveled to seemingly mundane towns like Hawkins, Indiana, and Derry, Maine, along with more fantastic worlds such as Eternia, Third Earth, and Fantasia in the Land of Fiction, to visit the many friends and allies they had made during their various adventures through time and space. (1980-1989)

\- Possibly the single most important adventure the Brat Pack was ever involved with was saving the entire Earth, and who knows how many other planets, from the world-eater Unicron. As the Time War between the Time Lords and Daleks began to escalate, both factions started to recruit other alien species to serve as proxies and fodder for their conflict. One of these auxiliaries ended up being Unicron, the monstrous Cybertronian god of entropy, who was forcefully made a giant Dalek-slave unit by the Daleks creator and master Davros. Using the god-machine as a living weapon of planetary destruction, Davros planned on testing Unicron's destructive capabilities by destroying the homeworld of his archenemies favorite species before using it to exterminate the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Finding out about Earth's pending extermination through her former colleagues in the CIA, Ace tried to contact the Doctor, but as always, she was unable to reach him. Realizing that the Time Lords wouldn't bother to help save the Earth either, Ace and the Brat Pack put out a rallying cry across known space and beyond asking for allies to come to the Earth's defense. They called in old debts and sought the help of old friends, traveling to Eternia, Third Earth, Arus, Etheria, Mongo, Cybertron and many other worlds in the short time they had. All in all, the Brat Pack gathered one of the largest, and most diverse, fleets of spacecraft ever brought together in one place. While listing absolutely all the individuals, groups and planetary governments that heeded the Brat Pack's call for help would be impossible for this chronicle, it will still list the most remarkable ones that made their appearance; The Star League government, of course, was more than willing to help defend the homeworld of their greatest pilot and was the first of the Brat Pack's stellar allies to lend support in the form it's still small force of Starfighters. Along with the Starfighters, the last remaining space-worthy ship of the once great Thunderean ThunderFleet, the Starship Eternia, the Silverhawks attack craft Miraj, John Blackstar's experimental proton-powered spaceship, a sentient Trimaxion drone ship, the legendary transforming space mecha of Arus, the repaired Autobot flagship 'The Ark,' and the fleets of the Asogians, Black Lectroids, Melmacians, and even the incorporeal 'Starmen' were all present to come to the Earth's defense. The Brat's Pack's plan was for Alex to led the alliance and have it serve as a distraction for the enslaved Unicron and the fleet of Dalek escort ships that surrounded him while the rest of the Brat Pack used the TARDIS to teleport into the heart of god-machine, their goal being to find and destroy the shield generators that made Unicron almost invincible. With them gone Alex and the alliance would be able to destroy the Dalek command node that enslaved the planet-eater to Davros's will. Avoiding roving Daleks, the Brat Pack reached the shield generator's chamber only to be taken unawares by Davros and his Dalek guards. Davros knew about the Brat Pack's presence in Unicron from the very beginning but allowed them to believe they had outwitted him so he could relish seeing their hopes of success turned into the ultimate failure as he prepared Unicron to destroy their fleet and then the Earth. Fortunately, for the Brat Pack, the alliance, and all of humanity, Ash was able to save the day by reciting a memorized passage from the Necronomicon, having secretly been studying the tome in an attempt to finally conquer his fear of it. Miraculously, the gambit worked with many of the Daleks being immediately possessed by demonic spirits. With Davros and his minions panicking and fighting their possessed counterparts, the Brat Pack used the opening to destroy the shield generators with one of Ace's Nitro-bombs and escape on the TARDIS. With the shields went down, Alex and the fleet were finally able to attack the exposed Dalek command node, though it took Alex making a nigh-impossible shot to destroy it. When Unicron once more in control of his body he began to use his internal and external defenses to destroy the genocidal aliens that thought they could control him. Once he destroyed the Dalek escort ships, Unicron, to everyone's collective relief, did not continue towards the Earth but instead made for a new destination: Skaro. (1989)

 **Dissolution** – Shortly after dealing with Davros and Unicron, Ace came to the realization that while humanity's proper future was finally secured, with the dystopic divergent timelines largely no longer springing up, the Time War was only getting more intense and destructive for other parts of the universe. Believing the Time Lords couldn't be trusted to do their duty and protect the entire universe, but also unwilling to continue to endanger the lives of her friends in a war that she didn't know she, or anyone else for that matter, could really win, Ace tearfully decided to disband the League and fight the war by herself as Time Vigilante's.

 **Final Fates**

As already mentioned, Ace went on to fight the Time War alone. Some say she once again traveled with the Doctor at some point in the conflict, but this chronicle has no hard evidence about what she did during the War, whether she did meet the Doctor again, or even if she's still alive.

Leroy returned to New York City, and after marrying his long-time girlfriend Laura opened up his own dojo for poor local families unable to afford typical dojo fees. Leroy quickly became a prominent community leader and was a significant influence in lowering local gang activity. He still lives in New York City to this day and has become something of an unmasked local hero in the same vein as Luke Cage.

Alex went back to service the Star League and used his reputation as the Hero of the Battle of Sol to become a respected ambassador to the various different species that wished to join the rising Star League. As the Daleks and Time Lords rampaged across the universe, Alex and his Starfighters became an almost universal symbol of hope and resistance for the hundreds of alien species caught in the middle. Like Leroy, Alex eventually married his girlfriend Maggie Gordon. The two would go down in the annals of Star League history as two of the best pilots the Starfighters ever produced.

Charlie wasn't on her own for long after the Brat Pack disbanded. Making her way to Maine, she ended up being officially adopted by Carrie White and given a new identity. Together the two explored the full capabilities of their psychic powers and many years later were able to finally expose the criminal activities of the Shop to the American public.

True to her word Ace found a way to merge Ash with his 'true' self before leaving to fight in the Time War. How she managed to do this is something of a mystery, but it is said that after failing to get help from various fellow time travelers on Earth and almost losing hope for a solution, a mysterious woman who only went Ms. Thirteen arrived and offered Ace her expert assistance. Unfortunately, the merger seemed to have erased much of Ash's memories of being part of the Brat Pack, as when the Mystery League meet him during a mission against a legion of demons in a haunted house, he had only fragmentary memories of having met them once before and recalled almost nothing about the Brat Pack. For better or worse Ash never was able to fully remove himself from what happened in that cabin years ago and if reports are true he still encounters and fights Deadites to this very day.

Johnny 5 conversely has had a much more fortunate existence after the Brat Pack was no more, succeeding in proving his right to life as a sentient being in open court, a legal victory that would have several unexpected repercussions for other robots and androids, and for companies like Cyberdene and Nova Labs, for years to come. Johnny went on to become a major advocate for A.I. rights and a successful comedian.

Though they never did see Ace again, the remaining members of the Brat Pack (with the exception of Ash) did keep in contact with each as best they could and remained close friends even years after the disbandment of their League. If reports can be believed they even make the yearly effort of all meeting together and reminiscing about their adventures in the 80s.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** – First off I want to give credit to mrmachination's The League of Radical Dudes at Deviantart. His 80s LOEG was a big inspiration for mine. More people should really check out his/her work.

Had a lot more fun with writing this League than the last one, though I think I might have overindulged in some places. Oh well. Live and learn.

The next League is also going to be reviewer's choice again. I was planning on finally doing the Blaxploitation League for February and Black History Month, but I suddenly got a couple interesting ideas for a Die Zwielichthelden write-up.

Tell me what you think about the Brat Pack and which League I should do next in the reviews. And as always I hope you joined reading about this radical, tubular and totally, like, bodacious League.


	5. The Blaxploitation League

**The Black Liberation League (1975-1980)**

 **Inception** – Another unorthodox League that was boldly anti-authoritarian. The Black Liberation League was formed in 1975 by the mystic Jericho Drumm who was inspired to create a League of his own after seeing the effectiveness of the League of the Extraordinary Investigators during their fight against the vampire Prince Mamuwalde in 1974. Drumm felt compelled to create a League that would be dedicated to the defense of Black Americans during a turbulent decade where the hard-fought civil rights victories of the 1960s were seemingly being eroded by nefarious forces within and without the Black community that wished to exploit his people for malicious ends. Believing that conventional groups like the government-sponsored League of the Extraordinary Investigators and even the socially conscious X-Men wouldn't be able to step up to the task, Drumm recruited four individuals who shared his concerns and wanted to make a difference for their communities.

 **Members**

 **Jericho Drumm** – Also known as the superhero, Brother Voodoo, Drumm was a Haitian man who had gone to the United States to become a psychologist. Unfortunately, Drumm was destined for greater things as his return to his home country started a chain of events that led to the death of his twin brother and his training to become a 'houngan,' a witch doctor charged with the sacred duty of protecting the Haitian people from harm. While Drumm loved his people and respected the ancient houngan ways, he believed that it was his duty to protect all peoples with his powers. Thus, Drumm became a superhero in not just his native Haiti, but the United States as well, routinely allying with other rising superheroes of the time like Doctor Strange, Moon Knight, and Spider-Man. This optimist outlook would not last though as violent encounters with US authorities and their blind eye towards, or even participation in, the exploitation and harm of Black Americans led Drumm to sadly conclude that he would have to focus his efforts on protecting his people from a White America that seemed determined to deny their personhood.

 **John Shaft** – A former cop turned private detective from New York City, Shaft had gained infamy among the Italian crime families after he succeeded in rescuing the daughter of a Harlem crime boss from a kidnapping that could have escalated into a brutal race war. While not a fan of working with others and something of rugged individual unafraid to thumb his nose at authority, Shaft accepted Drumm's offer to join his League, believing that since the cops couldn't be trusted to do their jobs, he and the Black Liberation League would have to serve as an alternative. Shaft was an incredibly cunning individual and while Drumm may have been the leader of the League, Shaft was its strategist.

 **Foxy 'Coffy' Brown** – Going by several different aliases, with Coffy simply being the most commonly used one, Brown was one of the most feared vigilantes of her era. Originally a nurse who was sick of seeing so many young Black people die of drug overdoses or the gang violence that drug trafficking bought to Black neighborhoods, Brown became a violent vigilante after her own sister (or her boyfriend, the accounts vary) was killed due to the actions of a major drug syndicate. But even after bringing down the traffickers little changed since new ones simply took their place. Undaunted, Brown remained a vigilante, abandoning her nursing career, and even her true name, to continue her war against drug pushers. Drumm was hesitant to invite Brown to the League since his training as a psychologist made it painfully obvious that Brown's crusade was slowly eroding her mental health. Begrudgingly, he still made the offer to her believing that her talent for infiltration, and even her ruthlessness, would be necessary for his League.

 **Black Belt Jones** – This extremely talented martial artist had been an effective bodyguard for important ambassadors for years before he was recruited into the Black Liberation League. Similarly to Shaft, Jones had gained notoriety after avenging the murder of his former mentor who was killed by the Mafia. Unlike Shaft, and indeed all his other League members, Jones was not adverse to working with the police or the government given his personal experiences with the institutions weren't always negative, and were even positive. Despite that, Jones was not blind or apologetic to injustices done to Black Americans and joined Drumm with little hesitation or concern over how it could affect his reputation as a freelance bodyguard for the government.

 **Youngblood Priest** – Once a highly influential and powerful drug dealer in New York City, Priest had decided to quit his life of crime and take up an honest living, but only after successfully managing to pull off one last heist that could allow him to keep his standard of living and support his girlfriend. While ultimately Priest did manage to break away from his violent past he still felt guilt-ridden over it, so when Drumm came to him with the opportunity to join his League and undo some of the damage he had committed when he was younger, he jumped at the chance despite the possibility of doing so attracting old enemies. With a deep knowledge of the criminal world and a host of old connections, Priest frequently served as the League's main source of information when it came to the inner workings and politics of criminal syndicates.

 **Team Dynamics** – Mostly stable. Drumm was an effective and wise leader who used his experience as a psychologist and as a spiritual leader to bind his League together as a collective. This was fortunate since while the League was united in purpose to protect the Black community there were still personality clashes that would occur on occasion. The most prominent being Shaft's and Brown's utter distaste for Priest due to his past as a drug dealer. Jones too wasn't initially trusted by his other teammates on account of his connections to the government and willingness to work with the police. Still, while even this League had its prejudices, they were almost always cast aside by their greater dedication to protect the most vulnerable and marginalized of communities.

 **Missions**

\- Going after various small-scale criminal organizations and gangs. Focusing most of these efforts in New York City, which at the time had an exploding crime rate not seen since the 1920s, they confronted up-and-comers like the ambitious Harlem-based mobster Tommy Gibbs, the charismatic Cyrus of the Gramercy Riffs, Mariah Dillard the drug-pushing leader of the Rat Pack, and the seemingly harmless Kung-Fu novice and pimp, Dolomite. With the help of Power Man's 'Heroes for Hires,' the League also worked to bring down and infiltrate the powerful criminal syndicates that practically ran the city. The allied crime families of the Maggia, the growing criminal empire of Wilson Fisk, and the seemingly unstoppable Corleone family were all frequent targets. (1975-1977)

\- Besides taking down conventional criminals, Drumm's League spent no small amount of time taking down explicitly anti-black and white supremacist terrorist groups, many of whose activities were conveniently ignored by normal policing and counter-terrorism forces. The nativist Sons of the Serpent, the neo-fascist militia of National Force, the international Nazi cult HYDRA, and even the black supremacists of Colonel Kojah's 'Black Gestapo' were all at one point or another enemies of the League. Given the high-profile and secretive nature of many of these organizations, top FBI agent Cleopatra Jones regularly gave the League intel on them. (1977-1980)

\- While this League rarely traveled just for the sake of an exploratory mission, it did every once in a while travel for symbolic gestures, such as going to the Deep South to find the remains of legendary Black vigilante, John Henry, and giving them a proper burial, and going to Canada to visit Jangotown, a community founded by another famous vigilante, this one being a cowboy and bounty hunter. (1977-1978)

\- Using Shaft's detective skills, the League was able to notice a series of disappearances in Los Angeles that seemed to be only targeting young black people. Going to the city and making closer inquiries they were able to link the disappearances to a Dr. Franklyn Stein, a once acclaimed Nobel Peace Prize-winning geneticist and surgeon who was forced to fake his death after a highly unethical experiment in limb transparents went horribly wrong and created a monster that rampaged across Los Angeles. Driven mad by the experience Stein desired to correct his mistake by reanimating what was left of his destroyed creature. While Stein was able to recover what remained of the monstrous experiment he needed the surgical skills of skills of his former protégé, Dr. Roman Armitage, and also the new 'material' to truly resurrect the abomination. With Armitage's help, he did just that, kidnapping several young black people (mostly transients and the homeless) and using their limbs and organs in his desperate attempt to recreate his 'Black Adonis'. When the League confronted the mad scientist in the secret crypts of his Los Angeles mansion, they saw a slaughterhouse of mutilated black bodies. Disgusted and outraged the League tried to take Stein down but were collectively blindsided by the nausea-inducing creature suddenly appearing and attacking them while Stein and Armitage ran for it. Fortunately, Shaft's marksmanship shined through, even as the super-strong monstrosity swung wildly at the League, and he was able to clip Stein in the back killing him instantly. Armitage, unfortunately, was able to make his escape. Even with one of his creators dead the creature was still driven to slaughter the League and might have been succeeded if not for Drumm using his necromantic powers to summon the restless ghosts of all Stein's and Armitage's victims and unleash them upon the very monster that used their stolen limbs. The ghosts tore the creature apart in a gory spectacle that left even the hardened members of the Black Liberation League stunned. Later, after destroying what remained of the creature for good and telling the families of the victims of their loved one's fates, they tried to track down Armitage, but sadly they lost his trail in Connecticut. It would be decades later before the mad surgeon and his twisted family would receive the justice they so rightfully deserved. (1977)

\- Acting as bodyguards for various prominent Black leaders and activists. Roman J. Israel and Philip Banks were only a few of the figures they protected from everything from assassinations to frame-ups set up by the CIA or S.H.I.E.L.D. (1977-1979)

\- Allying with the League of Extraordinary Investigators and together stopping the satanist Petey Wheatstraw from consummating his marriage the Devil's daughter and finally creating the Anti-Christ. Notably, it was this mission where Drumm made his first offer to the vampire hunter Eric Brooks to join his League. While Brooks denied the invitation on account of his commitments to the LXI, Drumm left the door open for him to join the Black Liberation League when he was ready. (1977)

\- The League's perhaps most morally and emotional taxing mission was their confrontation with the Vigilante League. On the heels of their triumphant victory over Petey Wheatstraw in Los Angeles, the League returned to their home base in New York City only to learn that a number of murders directed at several gangs had occurred out while they were away. While they at first believed that these murders were the opening salvo of another gang war in New York, a closer examination of the crime scenes by Shaft and Priest revealed that the killings were far too methodical to be the work of even talented hit-men. In fact, it quickly became apparent to the League that these killings were the work of someone, or someone's, with a vast amount of military experience as they were all textbook military protocol. While the League was determined to figure out who was behind these deaths what they planned on doing once they did was a divisive topic for the team. Drumm, Jones, and Priest thought that even though the vigilantes were only targeting criminals their actions were still far too extreme given that they used lethal force on all the criminals they dealt with regardless of how low-level or young they were. Shaft and Brown are said to have been unsympathetic towards these arguments and even believed that their teammates were being hypocrites given the extreme actions that the Black Liberation League had taken over the years. Despite these divisions, the League still managed to track the Vigilante League down by getting into contact with New York detective Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle who himself had been investigating the vigilante murders longer than the League. During his early investigation, Doyle had been approached by 'admirers' of his reputation as a ruthless cop willing to do anything to catch a perpetrator. While Doyle declined their offer to join them he did promise to keep their existence a secret. But as their killings became more deranged and publicized, guilt began to wear at Doyle, so much so that by the time the Black Liberation League approached him he was willing to tell them about the vigilantes and where their likely hide-out was. According to Doyle, the Vigilante League was led by a man that only went by the title 'The Executioner,' an expert sniper during the Vietnam War who returned home only to discover that most of his family was dead due to Mafia loan sharks, prompting him to go on a murderous war against mobsters and even those remotely connected to them. Along with him, an infamous vigilante that was reviled by New York City's superhero community for his ultra-violent and murderous tactics, a seemingly harmless middle-aged man who had lost his entire family to a violent home invasion, another Vietnam veteran who only a few years prior was held up as a hero by the people of New York for brutally gunning down several criminals involved with prostitution, and lastly a young traumatized woman who violently avenged her rape only a few months ago filled out the rest of the Vigilante League. Even though the League was formed in 1978, and had only existed for a few months, it still managed to rake up a high kill-count in New York and elsewhere. When Black Liberation League confronted the Vigilantes in their safehouse near Yancy Street Drumm attempted to convince them that while their goals were noble their means would likely do doing but make the criminals they wished to stop more paranoid, causing them to acquire more weapons and recruit more followers to defend themselves. Unfortunately, the Executioner and rest of his League believed otherwise, with Travis Bickle in particular refusing to listen to "A bunch of spooks," and opening fire on the League. Immediately, a firefight broke out between the two Leagues with Jones being severely wounded by Bickle, who himself was killed by Shaft. While the exchange was intense by all accounts the Black Liberation League were the victors with Drumm's magic giving them an edge that the Vigilantes could not counter. In end, the Vigilantes retreated but not before the Executioner, trying to cover his remaining comrades escape, was himself cut down like Bickle. Little was heard about the surviving Vigilantes after this confrontation and after a few months, it was assumed that they had disbanded rather than continue on without their leader. Drumm was reported to have been deeply disturbed by the ordeal with the Vigilantes and blamed himself for how things turned out given his failure to reach them. (1978)

\- Late in the year of 1979, Eric Brooks finally accepted Drumm's offer and joined the Black Liberation League. In hindsight, his arrival on the team was well-timed as they were soon alerted about a growing supernatural threat brewing in New Orleans by Dr. Garrett Williams, an archaeologist, exorcist, and an old friend of the League. Regrettably, by the time the League made it to New Orleans Williams himself had been possessed by the very threat he had warned the League about. The demon and trickster god Eshu, an old enemy of Williams and a powerful minion to the Devil himself, had masterminded a plot to both satisfy his desire for vengeance against Williams and also win approval from his infernal master by destroying one of the League's that foiled the most recent attempt at siring the Anti-Christ. Luring the League to a secluded graveyard, Eshu used his demonic powers to summon a horde of zombies against them. Unlike the walking corpses that rampaged across Philadelphia in 1968 and 1978, these poor creatures were still technically alive but put under the spell of Eshu that made them mindless servants. Given that the League was unwilling to kill, or seriously maim these innocent victims, and with Drumm's own magic being unable to counter the voodoo sorcery of Eshu, the League almost found itself overwhelmed by the zombies. Ultimately, it was Brooks who saved the League. Since he didn't have the close personal connection to Williams that the rest of the League did, it was easier for him to make the decision to fire at the possessed Williams, killing him instantly. Immediately, the zombies regained their senses and Eshu vacated Williams' dead body. He attempted to find a new host but Drumm, although momentarily in shock over Williams' sudden death, was able to react fast enough to magical seal the demon away in a djembe before the demon could possess another of his friends. Afterwards, the League considered kicking Brooks out due to his unilateral killing but Drumm, who grieved the most over Williams' death, ultimately decided against it believing that Brooks made the right choice as tragic as it was. (1979)

\- Once again working with Cleopatra Jones, the League was able to uncover a decade's old conspiracy within the international spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. With a young Nicholas Fury acting as their informant they learned that S.H.I.E.L.D had been compromised by agents of the Nazi terror cult HYDRA for decades, starting as far back as the final months of World War Two when numerous high-level Nazi scientists and agents like Arnim Zola, Paula von Gunther, and Heinrich Zemo were seemingly defecting to the Allies, but in truth still held their allegiance to HYDRA and its supremacist ideologies. For years they corrupted S.H.I.E.L.D from the inside, eventually reaching the height of their influence in the 60s when race relations were at a boiling point in the United States. Realizing that leaking this information to the press would likely just result in the story being buried and traced back to Fury, the League instead opted to use the information to attack several S.H.I.E.L.D facilities that were secretly fronts for HYDRA operations all the while collecting more damning evidence of S.H.I.E.L.D's corruption. Eventually, after foiling a plot by HYDRA to replace the relatively progressive President Jimmy Carter with a Life Model Decoy android, the League went directly to the President himself with their findings. Notably, they did so in a rather dramatic fashion, literally teleporting into the Oval Office using Drumm's magic. Unable to deny the evidence brought before him but unwilling to expose and dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D given the huge political fallout that would bring, he instead offered the League a compromise. S.H.I.E.L.D would publicly undergo a massive restructuring and budget cut that clandestinely would serve as house cleaning of suspected HYDRA agents and influences in the organization. The spy agency would still exist, but as a shell of its former self until it could be proven to be no longer compromised. Conversely, the government funds normally put aside for S.H.I.E.L.D would be redirected towards the creation of a new secret spy agency, one charged with protecting African Americans and acting as a watchdog for other major government agencies that may be susceptible to supremacist corruption. Carter offered the League control of this organization. Realizing that despite their reservations that this would be their best shot at taking down S.H.I.E.L.D, the League agreed to Carter's deal and formed B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. (1980)

 **Dissolution** – With the creation of B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D, the Black Liberation League was no longer necessary, and it was decided by Drumm that it would disband so that the former team could focus on building and leading a much bigger organization.

 **Final Fates**

Drumm was the first Chief of B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D for several years before retiring in 1992 and passing on the leadership of the spy agency to Jones, who had become his second-in-command over the years. Drumm was not idle during his retirement and continued to fight the forces of exploitation as the superhero Brother Voodoo, even teaming up with the tragic FBI League in 1994. We know at some point in the 2000s, Drumm became the Sorcerer Supreme after Stephen Strange, a longtime friend of Drumm, retired from the position. Given that the current Sorcerer Supreme at the time this chronicle was written is now William Kaplan, we can safely assume that Drumm likewise eventually retired and passed the title on as well. Beyond that little of Drumm's current whereabouts is known.

Shaft only stayed with B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D for a year or two before getting fed up with the number of regulations that the organization imposed upon him. On his own again, Shaft continued as a private detective. He eventually got married and had a son who took up the family business.

As mentioned earlier, Jones stayed on with B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D, becoming Drumm's second and eventually his successor. He would retire in 1999.

Brown's final fate would be tragic. Like Shaft, she eventually came to find B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D's rules confining and the entire organization incapable of doing what had to be done to clean the streets of crime. Though Drumm tried his best convince her to stay, Brown left and once again became a vigilante. Without the emotional support of her former teammates, Brown started to devolve, becoming increasingly more violent and indiscriminate towards those she saw as irredeemable. Eventually B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O. D's was forced to intervene when they found out that Brown was planning on assassinating President Ronald Reagan. Brown has held at Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital for several years for mental treatment. She was eventually released in 1997. She currently works as a nurse at Mayfield.

Priest, on the other hand, would go on to have a much happier departure from B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D in 1990. Still fearful of being caught by his former criminal associates, Priest and his long-time girlfriend eloped to Europe where they married and gained new identities. While reports are uncertain, it is said that Priest and his wife are living quite comfortably in Paris.

Brooks never joined B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D and went back to his solidarity existence as a vampire-hunter after the Black Liberation League was disbanded.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** – First I want to say that I've gone back and done some editing on some of my previous Leagues. It's mostly grammar corrections and fixing tense issues, but for the 80s League, I added a whole other adventure and made some more significant changes.

I got to say. At first, I was really struggling with this League. A problem that wasn't helped by me accidentally forgetting to save a losing a couple hours' worth of writing. But once I figured out how Blackenstein and Get Out could have a crossover everything else fell into place. Hope y'all enjoy the chapter. The next one is my rendition of the villainous Twilight Heroes.


	6. The German Expressionism League

**Die Zwielichthelden – The Twilight Heroes (1909-1941)**

 **Inception** – One of the most longstanding Leagues in modern history, the Die Zwielichthelden, which is a rather terrible translation of 'The Twilight Heroes,' was the first known German equivalent of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Created by Kaiser Wilhelm II, the last emperor of Germany, in early 1909 as both a military counterpoint to the British's 'Murray Group' and a personal vanity project, this League was comprised almost entirely of criminals and proto-supervillains who only a few years before were scourges on the German public. When his advisers in the German government informed the Kaiser of this fact, he was noted to have seen it as an asset instead of a liability, believing that it would make his League the fiercest of them all. Given the longevity of the League and its long list of horrific accomplishments throughout the decades, the Kaiser was at least correct in that regard. Unique among many other Leagues, especially government-controlled ones, the Twilight Heroes had several different handlers and served three very different governments. In fact, for simplicity sake, this chapter will divide the Twilight Hero's history into three different eras; The Kaiser's Reign (1909-1918), the Weimar Years (1919-1933) and the Nazi Regime (1934-1941).

 **Members**

 **Dr. Werner Mabuse** – Possibly the greatest criminal mastermind of the early 20th century, and one of the first examples of the modern supervillain, this supergenius, master of disguise and telepath was infamous in the German criminal underworld for his near flawless schemes and ability to always escape justice, and if rumors are to be believed, death as well. While Mabuses's origins are shrouded in mystery, with theories calming that he is either the son or apprentice of 19th century hypnotist and villain Svengali or one of the first 'mutants' in the 20th century, it is known that unlike the other members of the Twilight Heroes, Mabuse voluntarily joined the League instead of being captured and gang-pressed into service, somehow knowing that the Kaiser was looking for recruits. For that reason the Kaiser made Mabuse the leader of the Twilight Heroes, believing that such boldness was exactly what his League needed.

 **Dr. Helmut Caligari** – Another hypnotist and renowned criminal, Caligari was a former asylum director whose obsession with an 18th-century mystic, also coincidental named Caligari, drove him to madness. Using Cesare, an unfortunate young man brainwashed to serve Caligari's whims, as his assassin he murdered anyone who would slight him, even if it was only perceived as such. While Caligari and his slave were eventually imprisoned, the Kaiser heard of their exploits and demanded their release with the condition being that not only would the two serve his League, but that Caligari make more sleeping assassins like Cesare, as the Kaiser thought they would invaluable once "a war to end all wars began." Unlike Mabuse, Caligari's hypnotic abilities were not innate or supernatural, instead, he relied upon experimental hypnotherapy, perverted to serve his desires, and the old techniques of the first Caligari to control the minds of others.

 **Cesare** – Caligari's somnambulist assassin, manservant, and slave. Unlike the rest of the League, Cesare was no villain and was simply a young man who was admitted to Caligari's asylum for treatment, only to be used by the mad doctor as a test subject for his nefarious hypnotism. It is not even clear if Cesare was his real name and not just what Caligari named him once he was under his control. What is known is that given his relative youth to the other men of the League, and Caligari's hypothesis making him unaware of his own pain and exhaustion, he was regularly used as the Twilight Heroes stealthy assassin whenever Maria's inhuman strength, but lack of subtlety, was more a detriment than a boon for a mission.

 **Dr. Carl Rotwang** – A brilliant roboticist, inventor, and architect whose still remembered somewhat fondly (unlike the rest of the Twilight Heroes) to this very day for his contributions to science. Rotwang was the creator of many technological feats of engineering, with the Maschinenmensch and the Berlin Metropolis simply being the most well-known. While by no means a heroic or even kind-hearted person, Rotwang was different from his compatriots, Mabuse and Caligari, in that he was not a longtime criminal when he was drafted into the Twilight Heroes. In fact, if rumor can be trusted, his recruitment was the result of Joh Fredersen, one of Germany's most wealthy industrialists and a longtime scientific rival of Rotwang who had 'stolen' the woman that he had loved, framing him for the theft of adamantium from Berlin's Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg, leading to his incarceration by German authorities and subsequent offer of joining the Twilight Heroes in return for his freedom.

 **The Maschinenmensch** – One of, if not the first, android created by man, this gynoid was originally created by Rotwang to replace his lost love, Hel. However, his creation's coldness and artificial nature made the mad scientist reconsider the endeavor and deactivate the machine, sealing it in his private vaults. She likely would have stayed there forever if not for Rotwang's forced recruitment to the Twilight Heroes. Inhumanely strong and possessing an intellect that rivaled her maker, the Maschinenmensch would rise high while part of the League, even surpassing her master and all but becoming the leader of the Twilight Heroes during the later years of its existence as its other members either died or became old and infirm. The Maschinenmensch went under many numbers during its existence, with Ultima, Machina, Futura, Robotrix and lastly Maria, being the most commonly used.

 **Team Dynamics** – Traitorous and duplicitous. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given who comprised the League, the Twilight Heroes did not consider each other teammates, let alone friends, and constantly used each other and the governments they ostensibly served to their own ends. At best they had a begrudging respect for each other's talents and nefarious reputation, but even then, ego clashes were common. Mabuse was quite aware of this and it used to his advantage as leader of the League. With his subtle manipulations, he added fuel to Caligari's and Rotwang's loathing of one another and made ensure to drive a wedge between Rotwang and his Maschinenmensch by treating the latter with more respect than her creator ever did, even going as far as complimenting her intelligence and 'womanness.' As previously mentioned, Caligari and Rotwang despised each other, with Caligari believing Rotwang to be utterly pathetic for still pining for a woman long dead and creating a monstrous simulation to replace her. In turn, Rotwang considered Caligari a dimwitted plagiarist whose only accomplishments were stealing the techniques of a better man and turning an adolescent into a murderer. Both feared and envied Mabuse for his reputation, but were too busy squabbling with each other to ever focus their enmity towards him, just as he had planned. The Maschinenmensch was said to have come to resent her master Rotwang over time as she came to believe that she was more than just his tool meant to serve his whims. Consequently, the android admired Mabuse and seemed to have pitied Cesare, being the only member of the Twilight Heroes to do so, as she always made sure that he received medical treatment after every extraneous mission, something that his master Caligari regularly forgot, or didn't bother to do. This chronicle can only guess that the machine's sympathy towards the young man was because of their shared positions as subservient beings. There were even scandalous rumors that during the few moments that Cesare was lucid and free from Caligari's control that he and the machine were in a sort of relationship, though given the anatomical impossibility of such a thing, this chronicle finds the truth of these rumors unlikely, to say the least. Given that Cesare was literally asleep during most of his time in the League his relationship with his 'teammates' was more or less non-existent unless the rumors between him and the Maschinenmensch are indeed true.

 **Adventures**

 **The Kaiser's Reign (1909-1918)**

\- While there have been reports and rumors that have claimed that the first undertaking of the Twilight Heroes was an attempted sabotage of King George VI's coronation in 1910, they have proven to be difficult to substantiate with further evidence and as a result this chronicle will use the much more factually supported assignment against the French aviator Gil Dax as the group's 'true' first mission. While Dax was similar to many other adventure-scientists that were becoming increasingly more common in the era he managed to make himself distinct by successfully capturing several German spies in this native France and exposing them to the world at large, humiliating not only Germany but also the Kaiser himself. Infuriated that one Frenchman could singlehandedly destroy Germany's vital intelligence network in its biggest geopolitical rival, the Kaiser ordered his Twilight Heroes to assassinate Dax. Using Mabuse's connections across Europe's underworld and an experimental tracker made by Rotwang, the Heroes were able to locate Dax's hidden hanger in the Verdon Gorge of Southern France. Concerned that Dax had booby-trapped his headquarters, Mabuse, Caligari, and Rotwang sent their 'disposable' members to brave the hanger. The Maschinenmensch and Cesare managed to corner Dax in his own lab, with Cesare reportedly stabbing him from behind while Dax desperately tried to gun down the invincible Maschinenmensch. Dax's flying machine and other gadgets were taken by Rotwang for study, while his head was bronzed and given to the Kaiser himself. (1910)

\- Learning that the French had created their own League in the form of 'Les Hommes Mystérieux,' otherwise known as the Mysterious Men, Mabuse and Caligari plotted to kill two birds with one stone by manipulating this group and the British's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen into a violent confrontation with each other. Brainwashing key British and French intelligence agents and creating false leads and evidence, they were able to convince the two countries that the other was planning on using their League to eliminate their counterpart across the Channel. While the exact details of this confrontation are explained in the Black Dossier, this chronicle will add that the Twilight Heroes creation of sleeper agents in the form of the British's Campion Bond and the French's Arthur Chantecoq would allow the group to stay one step ahead of the two nation's espionage forces and Leagues throughout the First World War. (1913)

\- During the First World War, the Twilight Heroes were heavily involved with the German war effort having been tasked by the Kaiser to bring about a German victory by any means necessary and given an almost unlimited amount reasons to achieve that task. While they rarely operated on the frontlines, the League presence was felt throughout the war. Using information gained from their unwitting informants, and working with infamous German femme fatales Erna Flieder and Marie Janis, Mabuse and Caligari were able to give the German military intel on Allied troop movements and stratagems. Notably, Caligari's 'sleep commandos' were used for a time during the war but a near revolt by serviceman temporarily forced Caligari and the Kaiser to end the project, much to the mad doctor's chagrin. Rotwang for his part worked on weapons development and scientific research, creating all matter of fantastic robotic automatons while also improving German tank and armament designs. Cesare and the Maschinenmensch were made to assassinate numerous high-profile targets such as France's patriotic ace detective and spy-catcher Marc Jordan, Italian's aristocrat spy Cesare Stromboli, several members of Britain's top brain trust the Diogenes Club, and even its leader, current MI5 Director Mycroft Holmes. The biggest accomplishment of the Twilight Heroes during the war though was likely their orchestration of the death of Jean Robur and the destruction of his infamous airship 'The Albatross' during the Battle of the Somme. They accomplished this feat by capturing the Captain Mors, a longtime friend of Robur, and hypnotizing him to divulge the secrets of the Albatross. With that information it was a simple task of firing a rudimentary rocket designed by Rotwang at the airship's most vulnerable section, causing a cascade effect that brought the entire vessel down. While a great victory that essentially ended the Mysterious Men's involvement in the war, it was marred by Captain Mors escaping from the League's headquarters underneath Berlin, and subsequently swearing vengeance against the League for forcing him to betrayal his closest friend. (1914-1918)

 **The Weimar Years (1919-1933)**

\- With the war over and the Kaiser deposed from power, the Twilight Heroes almost faced dissolution, and even imprisonment, by the new Weimar Republic, which saw the League as a dangerous blot on Germany's already tarnished reputation. Fortunately for them, Mabuse was able to 'convince' President Friedrich Ebert of the League's utility, and even necessity, in the aftermath of the First World War and the rise of political extremism across Europe. With that, the League was allowed to continue to operate, though they were put on a tighter leash and were largely used to deal with domestic issues. For example, Rotwang and his creation were tasked with rebuilding Berlin by the government, which wanted the city's renewal to signify a new direction for Germany. Taking inspiration from the popular Art Deco movement and the American flying city of Columbia, Rotwang transformed Berlin into a hyper-technological Metropolis that to this day is remembered as one of the lost architectural wonders of the world. The rest of the League was tasked with dealing with Germany's crime rate, which was rising as demand for drugs and prostitutes rose in German's hedonistic Golden Twenties. With Mabuse leading the initiative, the Twilight Heroes eliminated several infamous key players in the 'Ringvereine,' or ring clubs, with the Berlin crime boss, Der Schränker, the gold mogul, Herr Seltrup, and Mabuse's rival mesmerist, Loke Klingsor, being only the most well-known targets. Unknown to the German government at the time, Mabuse didn't actually destroy these syndicates but merely wiped out their leadership and absorbed what remained into his own criminal empire. During this time the Twilight Heroes also frequently fought the vengeful Captain Mors, who on the 'suggestion' of Mabuse had been branded an anarchist and enemy of the state after the First World War. These sporadic duels, many of which took place in the skies of the Berlin Metropolis, lasted for almost a decade until inexplicitly ending in the late 1920s. At the time it was believed that the Mors had either died on some adventure or had finally decided to abandon the Earth entirely to explore the galaxy. It wouldn't be until years later the truth of his disappearance would be discovered. (1919-1930)

\- In a rare situation where the Twilight Heroes were decidedly the heroes of the situation, the League fought a covenant of vampires that were prowling the streets of Berlin Metropolis. Led by the resurrected Count Orlok, an ancient vampire that had once terrorized the German city of Wisborg in the 19th century, these vampires seduced and murdered the high-class artists and libertines of the Metropolis by night and by day dwelled within the underground remains of 'Old Berlin.' Noticing that the exsanguinations fit old police reports of murders not just in Wisborg, but also the Carpathian Mountains, Sweden, and even Britain, the League realized that the killings had to be the work of vampires. Using Rotwang's perfected tracker they had Cesare serve as a bait for the vampires, who ironically enough hypnotized him before taking him to their secret lair. With the tracker and Rotwang's eidetic memory of his Metropolis' complex sewer system, the League was able to find Orlok and his fellow undead. Unwilling to endanger themselves, Mabuse, Caligari, and Rotwang had planned on simply detonating several explosives at key sections of the sewer to cause a collapse that would bury the vampires in the rubble. Cesare's assured death was seen as an acceptable loss for the sake of the mission. In one of her first instances of rebellion the Maschinenmensch refused to comply with these orders and instead proposed that she go alone into the vampire's den to rescue Cesare and any other survivors that weren't already killed or turned. It is said that while Rotwang was furious that his creation would dare oppose him, and Caligari was amused by Rotwang's humiliation, Mabuse believed that her plan had merit and allowed her to make her rescue attempt. In the end, the automaton succeeded in her mission, not only saving Cesare and several famous Berlin socialites but also killing Orlok and his vampires minions by literally ripping out their undead hearts from their chests one at a time as they failed to damage her chassis with their fangs and claws. (1922)

\- Going to the Moon using a spacecraft of Rotwang's own design, the League attempted to recover the remains of the experimental German rocketship 'Friede,' and any possible survivors from the expedition team. Things went awry when they were attacked by Captain Mors and his science-pirate crewmates in their starship 'The Meteor.' Taken unaware, the Twilight Heroes barely managed to escape Mors' bombing of their landing site and only did so because of Cesare's chance finding of a nearby cavern. With their own ship destroyed in the bombing, the Twilight Heroes were forced to repair the Friede in secret while Mors and his crew prowled the craters of the moon looking for them. The task was made easy though by the League enslaving the native insectoid Selenites using Caligari and Mabuse's mind control, allowing the villains to speed up the repairs with their labor. By the time Mors finally found them, the ship was all but flight-worthy, with only a few hours needed to complete the repairs. Fortunately for the League, the brainwashed Selenites served as the perfect cannon-fodder to distract Mors while they made the last of the repairs and made their escape back to Earth on the Friede. While the Twilight Heroes briefing report stated that they were unable to find any survivors from the Friede, a diary entry by the famous Mina Murray on her own expedition to the Moon tells us that she was able to find the skeletal remains of two humans roughly near where the Friede was initially marooned. Both had bullet holes in their skulls. Given the nature of the League and the fact that the Friede was only able to carry five people maximum, we can only assume the Twilight Heroes prioritized their own survival. (1925)

\- Quelling a massive worker uprising that had quickly gone out of hand in the heart of Germany itself. Focused primarily in the Berlin Metropolis, the revolt began as a protest against the inhumane working conditions that the Metropolis' impoverished underground-dwelling labor class were forced to endure while its ruling class lived in endless hedonism and excess. For a while, the leaders of the Weimar Republic were willing to let the protest continue unmolested as its leader, Maria, was a pacifist whose sway over the movement prevented its more extremist elements from becoming violent. Unfortunately, this was not to last as the Metropolis' mayor, Joh Fredersen, lost patience with both the protest, as the worker's strike was cutting into his company's profits, and the government, which was unwilling to do anything about it. With no other recourse, Fredersen clandestinely sought the aid of former rival Rotwang and begrudgingly asked for his assistance on the matter. While at first indignant at the notion of assisting him, Fredersen's appeal to Rotwang's own self-interest in returning the city back to order did eventually convince him to help. He convinced Mabuse and Caligari of the benefit of having the mayor of the Metropolis in their debt. Realizing that their leader Maria was the only thing preventing the workers from becoming violent, and thus warranting the government to intervene and send the military to put them down, the trio used Cesare to kidnap Maria in the middle of the night and bring her to Rotwang's secret lab. With the aid of the insane surgeon Dr. Cornélius Kramm, another criminal rival of Mabuse who had been spared the fate of the others due to his useful talents, Rotwang was able to grant the Maschinenmensch a lifelike epidermis by literally skinning Maria's and applying it to the gynoid. While it is said that Frederson was understandably disgusted by what the villains had done, it is also known that after Rotwang told him of how he planned to use his disguised robot to corrupt the protesters from within his moral qualms were quickly allayed. With 'Maria' leading the protestors to a drunken spree of random violence across the city, the government was forced to act, sending the military to restore to the city. Things were going as planned until Frederson's own son, Freder, who had ironically enough grown sympathetic to the protestors after falling in love with Maria, was able to see that the Maria leading the protestors had to be false as the women he knew would never give into violence. Working with another major leader of the movement, Grot, Freder tried to expose the Maschinenmensch as fake and get the protestors to stop their spree before the military was able to wipe them all out. When one of Frederson's own spies discovered this, they quickly alerted the man him. Fearing for his son's safety despite his rebelliousness, Frederson attempted to personally convince his him to return to the safety of the Metropolis' upper tiers, only for him to refuse and continue to try and save the movement. It was around this time when the protester's violence was reaching a fever pitch that Rotwang finally stroke. Using primitive bugs he had installed in Fredersen's office, Rotwang had learned about Fredersen's attempt to save his son and waited until he was alone in the undercity to ambush and murder him himself. Unfortunately for the mad doctor, his victory would not last long as one of the protesters had seen the murder take place. Telling Freder of his father's death at the hands of Rotwang, the grief-ridden young man swore revenge, abandoning Grot to save the movement on his own and tracking Rotwang down to his isolated lab. There the two fought until both were killed when they both fell from the top of the lab. With Fredersen dead there was no hope of revealing the false Maria for what she was, resulting in the entire movement coming under her control once she personally eliminated Grot and the remaining pacifists. After that, it was simply a matter of deliberately luring the violent protesters to a trap where they would be cut down to a man by the German military. With the worker revolt finally, put down the Twilight Heroes were able to recover both Fredersen's and Rotwang's bodies. Mabuse was quick to lie to the League's handlers and claim that both were murdered by protestors. Besides a few admirers of his work, Rotwang was not mourned by anyone, especially not by his creation or the other members of the Twilight Heroes. Notably, the Maschinenmensch did not remove her skin sheath after it was no longer needed. In fact, she took on the name Maria and continued to masquerade as the women in public, making up a story on how 'she' she saw the error of her ways during the revolt and was now steadfastly loyal to the German government. With all of the other major worker leaders dead, there was no one able to reveal the truth. (1927)

 **The Nazi Regime (1934-1941)**

\- While it has never been decisively proven that the Twilight Heroes had a hand in Adenoid Hynkel rise to power in Germany during the political chaos that was raging in the country in the early 30s, it is known without a doubt that they wholeheartedly embraced the genocidal despot. Or at the very least appeared to for the sake of furthering their own private ambitions. With the democratic Weimar Republic gone and replaced with a Nazi state, the Twilight Heroes were given the operational freedom they had doing the Kaiser's Reign and then some. With their restrictions on espionage removed, Mabuse and Caligari once again used their talents to undermine foreign governments. Most of these schemes were directed against Tomania and Meccania, countries that were already on the brink of turning fascist. With strategic assassinations of moderate figures and the brainwashing of those found to be too valuable to be killed, these nations entered the growing Nazi political orbit, with Tomania flat out becoming semi-integrated into Germany, making Hynkel dictator of both nations. Within Germany itself, much of the same occurred. Hynkel's political enemies found themselves strangled in their sleep or suddenly compliant to the mad man's ethos. Even the once revered artists, celebrities, and intellectuals of Germany's Golden Twenties found themselves condemned as degenerates and murdered. Notably, it was during this horrific time that the leadership of the Twilight Heroes officially changed. With Mabuse getting on in years and seemingly not being able to be as directly active in League missions as once before, the mesmerist voluntarily gave up leadership of the League and nominated Maria for the position. While Caligari said to have been infuriated over the deliberate snub, Maria quickly adapted to the role and used the new position to her advantage. With the resources of the Twilight Heroes and the public goodwill associated with her stolen identity, the gynoid essentially took over the Berlin Metropolis and served as its unofficial military administrator and municipal taskmaster, increasing its overall productivity and ensuring that it would be able to provide the Nazi war machine a seemingly endless amount of armaments. (1934-1939)

\- As mentioned earlier in this chronicle, Captain Mors had seemingly disappeared from the world after he clashed with the Twilight Heroes on the Moon. We know now that this was a ruse. After his humiliation on the Moon, Mors had decided that he needed more than just his pirate crew to finally destroy the Twilights Heroes and avenge Robur. Thus, the air-pirate spent more than a decade looking for people of extraordinary talent to fill out his own League, having seen how effective the Mysterious Men were before Robur's death. The individuals he recruited were; The Holmes inspired German detective Nick Knatterton, the superhuman Mohawk adventuress Atalanta, the Fakir trained mystic Ralf Clifford, and lastly a mysterious globe-trotting investigator only known as Detective Nobody. All of whom had run afoul of the Twilight Heroes at one point or another. While this League began as nothing more than a means to satisfy his need for vengeance, as time went on Mors realized that it could, and should, have a larger purpose. By the time he had finally completed it in 1936, Germany was already under the thrall of the Third Reich and the Twilight Heroes. Believing that a true German League of Heroes could potentially save his homeland, and perhaps the world from despotism, Mors convinced his new colleagues of a plan to not only destroy the Twilight Heroes but to also remove the Nazis from power. Mors' plan was to lure the villains and several regiments of the military with an older version of the Meteor which would be piloted by a skeleton crew and parked atop the skies of Munich, seemingly threatening the city with bombardment. The hope was that while the Twilight Heroes and much of the military was dealing with the ruse, the Berlin Metropolis, and thus Hynkel and the top members of the Nazi party, would be vulnerable to a surgical attack on the Reichstag. With their assassination Mors believed it would cause a massive chain reaction that would destroy the larger Nazi regime and leave the Twilight Heroes without support, thus leaving them vulnerable. Regrettably, we will never know whether this plan would have worked as it turned out that Mabuse, suspicious of the idea that the normally ethical Mors would ever threaten to destroy a city filled with civilians, was able to convince Maria and Hynkel of his concerns and get them to only send a token force to Munich while the Twilight Heroes stayed in the Metropolis prepared for anything. When the Meteor 2.0 finally revealed itself over the Metropolis it started an aerial battle the likes of which would not be seen until the Second World War. Undaunted by the Twilight Heroes seeing past his plan, Mors and his League invaded the Reichstag while his crew did their best to occupy the attention of the Nazis. There, they battled Maria and Cesare as they tried to defend their Führer, while Caligari and Mabuse watched the confrontation from a telescreen in a hidden bunker in the Reichstag, waiting to see who would ultimately be victorious in the struggle. Unfortunately, despite their best efforts, Mors and his League were overwhelmed by Nazi stormtroopers and sleep commandos who had finished taking down the Meteor 2.0. Still, the heroes are said to have fought bravely to the last, with Knatterton almost reaching Hynkel's safe room before being strangled from behind by Cesare. Detective Nobody and Clifford, whose hypnotism proved useless against sleep commandos, were mowed down by Nazi gunfire, while even the seemingly invulnerable Atalanta was beaten to death by Maria. With Mors cornered, alone and lamenting losing cherished friends once again, he opted to make a suicidal attack using a specialized grenade that would have likely destroyed much of the Reichstag if not for Cesare acting quickly and tackling the air-pirate out a window before the explosion could go off. Afterward, Mors' entire family and even distant relatives were rounded up and condemned as traitors to Germany, regardless of whether they even knew anything of the air-pirate's plan. Most of them would die in concentration camps. On a slightly more positive note, Maria was said to have demanded a funeral for the Cesare despite sneers from Caligari. She would be the only one to attend it. (1937)

\- Just like in the First World War, the Twilight Heroes made their malign presence known throughout the first few years of the Second World War. While not as active as they were decades ago, the remaining Twilight Heroes assisted the Nazi war machine in a myriad of ways. Working with Heinz Goldfoot and Wilhelm Strasse, both protégés of Rotwang, Maria was able to design more advanced automatons and mechs for the military. Many of these machines would clash with Ally superheroes like Tom Strong and Diana Prince on the frontlines. Caligari throughout the war was absorbed into perfecting his sleep commandos, believing that they would be the key to securing a Nazi victory. With the assistance of the infamous 'She-Wolf of the SS,' he used test subjects (many of them POWs) from her concentration camps and subjected them to horrific mental and physical trauma to brainwash them into perfect soldiers for the Third Reich. Many of the techniques used here would be later appropriated by the British Ingsoc government and the KGB's 'Manchurian Project.' Mabuse, on the other hand, is said to have gone through the motions, doing little more than using his still powerful spy network to inform his superiors about Ally secret projects like the American 'Super-Soldier" program. Beyond that, Mabuse was preoccupied with secret projects that he kept hidden from his colleagues. It would only be after the group's termination that it would be discovered that Mabuse felt the Nazis were doomed to fail and that he had been planning for his eventual disappearance from Germany. As already mentioned, while the Twilight Heroes spent much of the war not on the frontlines and working on their own projects, they did work together for the famous attack on the French air-pirate Armand Robur's 'The Terror,' using the same design flaw that its predecessor possessed to seemingly bring the vessel down. This act and the greater scheme behind it would eventually lead towards the Twilight Hero's end. (1939-1941)

 **Dissolution** – The events of the Battle of the Berlin Metropolis are already described in Hildy Johnson's famous biography on the life of Janni Dakkar and thus this chronicle will direct you to go read it to learn about the Twilight's Heroes demise.

 **Final Fates** **–** Besides Mabuse, all the other Twilight Heroes would not live past the group's final dissolution. Mabuse would eventually join the Nemo Family where he would surprisingly become a trusted and loyal adviser and confidant to the Pirate Queen. Unfortunately, old age would eventually claim his mind and the once great mastermind would die a raving madman in 1960. The Mabuse family to this day still serves the Nemo Family, ironically enough doing so beside the surviving Mors.

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 **Author's Notes** – Sorry this took so long to get out. I was distracted by other projects and school. Anyways, it's reviewer's choice again! This time let me know if you want me to do a children's fantasy League or a comedic one with B-movie characters.


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